Iconic Communication

Our society is becoming a more visual culture day-by-day. This book offers detailed analyses of how to combine words with pictures to communicate clearly across cultural barriers.

While some information is better communicated by one kind of media than another, some information is communicated most effectively through a combination of media. This book presents a critical framework within which iconic communication systems can be developed to truly bridge linguistic and cultural gaps and to provide effective computer-based systems for conveying information on a global scale.

With valuable insights for the Information and Communication industries, this book draws on the work presented at several conferences on the subject and is designed primarily for graphic designers and human-computer interface developers as well as supplementary reading on degree courses in Information Technology.

Contents

Preface

Part 1: Foundations

1. Human Communication Processes -
Philip
Barker
2. On the Possibility and Impossibility of a Universal Iconic
Communication System - Andrew
J. King
3. The Limits of Iconic Communication - John Roscoe

Part 2: Background

4. Some Pictorial Symbol Systems for Public Places
- Ian McLaren
5. Double Vision - Michelle Gausman
and Clive Chizlet
6. Communication through Icons -
Masoud Yazdani

Part 3: Proposals

7. Do You See What I'm Saying? -
Stuart Mealing
8. Iconic Text: An Exploration of the Limitations of Iconic
Languages - Colin Beardon
9. Visualisation of Textual Structures -
Graziella Tonfoni

Part 4: Development of Prototypes

10. The Augmentation of Textual Communication with User
Icons - Leon Cruickshank and Lon
Barfield
11. VIL &endash; A Visual Inter Lingua - Lee Becker and
Paul Leemans

Part 5: Research Outcomes

12. Icons in the Mind - Philip Barker and Paul van
Schaik
13. Designing and Evaluating Icons - Philip Barker and Paul
van Schaik
14. Evaluating Appropriate Interface Metaphors - Paul
Honeywill