Using Symbols and Icons in Localization

By Yves Lang, ENLASO Corporation

Products designed for global markets have come to rely on the use of icons and symbols to communicate effectively with international markets. This practice has increased throughout all product assets including: user interfaces, packaging and labeling, documentation, and marketing materials. Through these graphical communications, developers and graphic designers are creating new sets of communications mediums that are transcending traditional verbal language, creating a set of localization issues that are not merely linguistic, but semiotic.

Using Flags in Localization Which flag do you use to represent the English language? The American flag? The British flag? The Canadian flag? The Australian flag? All of these countries speak English. Flags are nationalistic, and represent ideals, boundaries, and political beliefs, but do not represent a language. In the process of selecting the most appropriate flag, you will inevitably offend someone because you left them out. The best practice with all flags, national symbols, maps, and so forth is to avoid them as much as possible.

Implementing internationally accepted icons and symbols afford global manufacturers design advantages that make products easier to produce, learn, use, and maintain. Icons attract a viewer's attention and require less space than the equivalent communication in words. More information can be organized into a given area, minimizing the need of resizing created by languages that require more (or less) space after translation.

As of part of a visual language system, icons and symbols sometimes replace international written languages, facilitating user interfaces that are international in design and comprehension. For example, airports, and other places frequented by international travelers, use icons because their ability to communicate is not restricted by language comprehension. With one picture an entire concept can be depicted, as pictures can evoke shared experiences that everyone has within their culture.

Cultural differences challenge the design and implementation of icons and symbols for international use. What is meaningful and natural for one group may be ambiguous, unintelligible, or arbitrary for another. Fundamentally, communication is subjective, as a person's perceptions are influenced by their environment. The same holds true for symbols and icons: people interpret them subjectively, based on their own set of personal and cultural understanding. How people acquire, organize, and utilize information is related to how they have learned to process information. Some cultures use more symbols in communication than others, which is related to cultural deviation in writing and language. For example, Japanese and other Asian languages using the kanji script have a stronger ability to perceive and use visual symbols.

International Standards It is said that some suites of CAD/CAM applications can use over 5,000 icons, including object icons, pointer icons, control icons, tool icons and action icons. Constituting an increasingly robust visual language, there is a need for international bodies to standardize international symbols and icons. International Standards Organization ISO/IEC 11581 The JTC 1, a technical group from the International Standards Organization (ISO) in Geneva, is standardizing the use of internationally accepted icons for the information technology industry — specifically with the use of user interfaces that users can interact with and manipulate. Part 1: Icons - General Part 2: Object icons Part 3: Pointer icons Part 4: Control icons Part 5: Tool icons Part 6: Action icons To download a description of the ISO/IEC 11581

When developing a product for global markets, it is recommended that localization professionals develop an understanding of the generally accepted conventions for using international symbols and icons in multilingual projects, such as:

• Avoid single-letter concepts, as confusion will be introduced through translation
• Avoid graphic elements with text
• Avoid graphics depicting human body elements and body language
• Avoid graphics depicting humor, puns, and slang
• Avoid graphics depicting physical environments
• Avoid graphics depicting ethnic, racial, political, and religious environments
• Avoid graphics depicting gender-specific elements
• Avoid graphics depicting images of animals
• Avoid graphics depicting sexual and violent elements
• Avoid graphics depicting regional conventions, such as reading direction, date/time, and monetary elements

Conclusion
Implementing internationally accepted icons and symbols into the design of localizable products afford global manufacturers competitive advantages that make products easier to produce, learn, use, and maintain. However, cultural differences challenge the design and implementation of icons and symbols for international use. What is meaningful and natural for one group may be ambiguous, unintelligible, or arbitrary for another. When developing a product for global markets, it is critical that localization professionals develop an understanding of the generally accepted conventions for using international symbols and icons in multilingual projects.