Until I moved to the US from India in 1986, I don't recall having encountered the 0/1 power symbol more than a couple of times. Even today, the symbol is quite rare except on computers and some other digital products. Many educated people in India could probably guess at the meaning of the symbol but the use or awareness of the symbol is far from universal in land of over a billion people (and a rapidly emerging market for consumer durables).
This is not a rant against the 'Standard Power Symbol' -- it's simply to take note that naive assumptions about universality and a dismissive attitude towards raising questions about the issue are very similar to the attitude of some system developers who view users as being 'losers' and if they are unable to appropriately use a system then its their own problem. Language and symbology does take time to permeate through society, particularly a large, diverse, complex one. While most symbols are at least somewhat arbitrary, the 'right arrow/right-pointing triangle' used for the PLAY button is much less so -- pointing and arrows developed early enough in the evolution of the species that the symbol could be considered 'universal'. The Pause and Stop symbols, however, are pretty darned arbitrary -- the mapping to the real functions is cognitively more taxing. Sitting here in my parents' home in India, I can step out of the house and point at any random person outside and be fairly certain that they don't understand the 0/1 symbol. This situation is unlikely to change for a long while. Indeed, I am pretty sure that they are more likely to associate the power function with a button colored RED than one with an arbitrary symbol slapped on it. The association of a color or more primeval shape with a fundamental function such as power on/off is more likely than its association with an arbitrary symbol. Speaking of learning arbitrary conventions: Power switches in India follow the British standard of turning on if the switch is down and turning off it is up -- the reverse of what obtains in the Americas. While one's mind quickly learns this distinction, muscle memory is quite another thing. The reliance on arbitrary symbols in a critical, possibly catastrophic situation is fraught with peril, especially if quick reflexes are essential to contain a rapidly emergent problem. I learned to drive on the left hand side of the road in India and then had to learn to drive on the other side in the US. I'm pretty good at switching sides when I travel across the oceans and choose to drive. But I know a lot of people who refuse to drive in one or another country because they don't trust their reflexes. And if you choose to drive in India, you'd better have good reflexes -- and a calm, unruffled, mind. I live with my aged parents in India now. Every day -- and indeed several times a day -- I encounter situations that they are unable to cope with because of an inability to deal with arbitrary symbols or conventions, or complex processes. Generalizing design principles from a Web 2.0 user base of twenty-something, college-educated, Americans leaves a whole lot of people out in the cold. - murli ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
