Abstract
This study investigates whether certain symbols can function as universal visual primitives to convey affirmation, negation, and warning without relying on language or context. Postgraduate design students in India created pictogram-based visual instructions for ibuprofen, from which 56 symbols were extracted and standardized in black and white. After refinement, 12 symbols were tested with 240 participants across diverse demographics using open-ended comprehension tests. The tick mark consistently conveyed affirmation, the cross (X) and diagonal slash inside a circle expressed negation, and the skull with crossbones effectively indicated warning. Results highlight the role of familiarity, exposure, and convention in shaping comprehension, suggesting that some symbols maintain stable meanings even without context. The study proposes developing a visual syntax for medicine instructions using such tested primitives, enabling clearer and language-independent communication while offering a foundation for generative AI to construct consistent and comprehensible visual messages.
Keywords
Visual syntax; Visual primitives; Visual grammar for pictograms; Visual language; Information design; Symbol comprehension
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1123
Citation
Rane, M.,and Waarde, K.v.(2025) From Tick Marks to Crossbones: Designing and Testing Visual Primitives for Medicine Instructions, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.1123
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 12 - Design Education
From Tick Marks to Crossbones: Designing and Testing Visual Primitives for Medicine Instructions
This study investigates whether certain symbols can function as universal visual primitives to convey affirmation, negation, and warning without relying on language or context. Postgraduate design students in India created pictogram-based visual instructions for ibuprofen, from which 56 symbols were extracted and standardized in black and white. After refinement, 12 symbols were tested with 240 participants across diverse demographics using open-ended comprehension tests. The tick mark consistently conveyed affirmation, the cross (X) and diagonal slash inside a circle expressed negation, and the skull with crossbones effectively indicated warning. Results highlight the role of familiarity, exposure, and convention in shaping comprehension, suggesting that some symbols maintain stable meanings even without context. The study proposes developing a visual syntax for medicine instructions using such tested primitives, enabling clearer and language-independent communication while offering a foundation for generative AI to construct consistent and comprehensible visual messages.