UN Pictograms for Humanitarian Software

The OCHA Humanitarian Icons are a set of 500 pictograms for humanitarian relief operations from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs (OCHA). These can be used as computer icons for communicating information about relief operations where language may otherwise be a barrier.

Social Media for Organizations

Greetings from the CSIRO Discovery Centre in Canberra, where ACS is holding a meeting on Social Media and Political Revolution, with Stephanie Hawkins. Stephanie emphasized how social media is useful for organizations for two way communications for clients. She recommenced small dedicated teams for managing the organization's social media strategy and also using internal social media platforms, such as Yammer, for staff to communicate with each other.

Stephanie nominated the Queensland Police Service use of social media for Disaster Management as the worlds best. There is a very useful "Disaster Management and Social Media - a case study" published by the Queensland Police Service:

CONTENTS
Executive Summary i
Background ii
Disaster declared iii
Sudden escalation iv
What were Police Media doing during the disaster? iv
Basic services provided by Police Media during this time were: v
Why did it work? v
Praise from Government vi
The benefits of social media in a disaster vi
Praise from Facebook vii
Lessons learnt vii
Contacts vii
Praise from Media viii

Stephanie emphasized she was speaking from the point of view of a media professional. She did point of that messages via social media also need to be distributed via other channels, such as web pages. But I suggest IT professionals need to also consider the technical needs of social media. In particular when using social media for emergency management, the systems need to be sufficiently reliable. The staff supporting the social media in an emergency will need special equipment, such as backup power and satellite wireless communications, plus training to be able to operate in the event of loss of mains power, water and other services.

ps: I was impressed to see the talk was preceded with a set of slides using standard pictograms, to brief the audience on facilitates and safety procedures for the venue.

Defence Technology on Display in Sydney

Greetings from the Darling Harcourt Convention Center in Sydney, where the Pacific 2012 Maritime Defence Conference. is on until 3 February. I was intending to attend the DSTO Technology for Amphibious Operations session. This is a high priority for the Australian Defence Force (ADF), as new ships are being acquired (including two new Canberra Class Landing Helicopter Dock Ships. The Australian Navy, Army and Air Force will need to learn how to work closely together (and with civilian public servants and industry). I saw how such operations are conducted, first hand at Exercise Tandem Thrust 97. The session was so popular, there was standing room only and so I looked at the exhibition.

One item which got my attention was 9LV SAT - Situational Awareness Terminal. This is sued on ships to display a map showing where friendly and other forces are. Unlike a traditional console, used sitting down on a large ship, it is designed to be used standing up in a patrol boat or a Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB). There is a iPad-like touch screen interface for larger vessels and reconfigurable buttons for the RIB (it is hard to use a touch screen while hanging on in a small boat). Many of the text boxes on the screen have been replaced with pictograms.

Relevant to the LHD project are plans for computer aided training of the technical staff of the ship, those who will operate it and be transported on it. A "walk through" has been developed which looks like a video game, allowing personnel to familiarize themselves with the layout of the ship by "walking" through it on a screen. Simply finding your way around a ship can be difficult. There is also a simulation of the diesel engines for training maintenance staff.

It was also interesting to see the many small Australian companies which supply to the ADF and to the military of other countries. An example are the inflatable life rafts and escape slides used on modern ships. A large civilian ferry or military transport ship carries so many people that it would be infeasible to use conventional lifeboats and ladders to load them. So these ships now use inflatable slides like those used on passenger aircraft (an Australian invention) and inflatable rafts (from Liferaft Systems Australia).

Privacy Icons for eMail

Stanford Centre for the Internet and Society (CIS) has released a set of Privacy Icons for eMail ("Privicons") and an implementation for Google Chrome. The icons (pictograms) The "Don't Attribute" and "Don't Print" are reasonably clear, the others are a bit hard to fathom. But as long as they are used consistently that doesn't matter.

I like the idea of the "Don't Attribute". This is teething with Creative Commons is lacking: every one of the licenses requires you to acknowledgment the originate author.

1. Don't attribute (Anonymous)
Delete after reading/X days
2. Don't print
3. Keep internal
4. Please share
5. Keep private

Signs and Symbols In the Mind's Eye

The "Feedback" column in the 14 May 2011 edition of "New Scientist" asks why the warning signs at railway crossings in the UK features a drawing of a steam train, which have not operated on the tracks in decades. Australia and many other countries use a similar diagram of a steam for their railway level crossing warning sign, whereas Germany uses a drawing of a modern electric locomotive.

Research has shown that the curved steam train shape is much more recognisable than the box like modern train shape. People would be familiar with the shape of a steam train from children's books and films, even if they had never seen a real one. Therefore the steam train sign is safer:

Title: A COMPARISON OF ALTERNATIVE SYMBOLIC WARNING SIGNS FOR RAILWAY LEVEL CROSSINGS

Abstract:

Most level crossings have light traffic and good accident records and the only protection that can be justified in cost benefit terms is a system of warning signs. The Australian standard specifies a warning sign using the "cross bucks" symbol which might not be correctly interpreted and might also be confused with the crossroads warning sign. Wigglesworth, in a review of level crossing protection for the Ministry of Transport, Victoria, recommended the adoption of a train symbol. The UN protocol symbol is a steam train but steam trains are no longer used on scheduled railway services. However, a diesel train symbol does not have distinctive features easily adaptable to symbolic representation and such a symbol might not have an adequate legibility distance. This paper compares the two Australian standard railway warning signs, a steam train symbol and two diesel train symbols. The criteria for evaluation are interpretability and legibility distance. Consideration is also given to what are the community stereotypes for a railway warning sign. It is concluded that the steam train symbol remains a community stereotype despite the rarity of steam trains; is likely to be correctly interpreted and has a long legibility
distance. (Author/TRRL)...

Authors: Cole, B L Jacobs, R J

Publication Date: 1981-12

Serial: Australian Road Research Volume: 11 Issue Number: 4
Publisher: Australian Road Research Board
ISSN: 0005-0164

National Parks Service Pictograms

After suggesting symbols from a "Graphic Symbols for Public Signage System" for a Fish and Chip Shop

I noticed the Open Icon Library has US National Parks Service symbols. These include a more stylised and bolder set of simpler signs, including Snack Bar (cafe), Food Service (restaurant).

Open Icon Library

The Open Icon Library has an impressive range of icons/pictograms avialable under several open access licences. They have an Icon Gallery, but I found it difficult to navigate. There appears to be no search function and I was not able to search for icon names with a web search. As an example "applications-education.png". Confusingly the "Icons" directory includes symbols, such as the DOT transport pictogram including "hailing a cab".

Samsung Galaxy Tab

Tesltra shops have the Samsung Galaxy Tab alongside the T-Touch Tab (a Tesltra branded Huawei Ideos Tablet S7). As befitting its much higher price than the Huawei, the Galaxy Tab feels much better made and is much faster in operation than the T-Touch. Its only fault is that it is a little heavy to hold in one hand and could benefit from a rubber case to make it easier to grip.

Using the tablet to look at my blog entry on pictograms for a fish and chip shop, I noticed that the icons were the right size for using as touch screen buttons. Using CSS I had made these 4 em square. The images were as high as four lines of text, making them about the same size as a 12.5mm standard finger.

Using CSS buttons which automatically resize for web pages in proportion with the text size would seem to be a way to get around different smartphone and tablet screen sizes and resolutions. Someone who has poorer eyesight and so uses a larger text is likely to also appreciate having larger buttons to press.

Public Information Symbols in Japan

The book "Symbol Signs" (AIGA, 1993) documents the development of the standard symbols for use in airports by the American Institute of Graphic Arts for the U.S. Department of Transportation. A similar process was undertaken in Japan by the "The Study Committee of Public Information Symbols" from April 1999. As with the US effort this was a joint private government partnership with the Ministry of Land Infrastructure and Transport and the Nippon Foundation. The Study recommended 125 Public Information Symbols in 2001.

The symbols are in eight categories:

1. Public Facilities
2. Transport Facilities
3. Commercial Facilities
4. Tourism,Culture,Sport Facilities
5. Safety
6. Prohibition
7. Warning
8. Mandatory

There are three grades (A, B and C), with "Grade A" having the most commonly used symbols. There is also a fourth category of "Existing", which is presumably of symbols in common use which the committee did not particularly like, but felt obliged to include.

The Symbols follow the style of the US AIGA DOT symbols and mostly use the AIGA recommendations, but have more detail. As an example, as well as an "Information" sign (small case "i"), there is a "question and answer" sign ("?").

The sample syvbmols are prtovided as 70 x 70 pixel PNG files. The sybmols are mostly monochrome in black on a white background. The safety signs are in green or red, prohibition signs in red and black on a white background and warning signs in black on a yellow background. PDF, EPS and GIF archioes are proveded of each set of symbols at higher resolutioons. However, the symbols are not provided as individual files at higher resolutions, making the m much harder to use.

Public Facilities

Grade A

• 
  Question & answer
• 
  Information
• 
  Hospital
• 
  First aid
• 
  Police
• 
  Toilets
• 
  Men
• 
  Women
• 
  Accessible facility^(*1)
• 
  Slope^(*1)
• 
  Drinking water
• 
  Smoking area
• 
  Smoking area^(*2)

*2 Use the symbol below wherever so required by the fire prevention ordinance.

Grade B

• Check-in / Reception
• 
  Lost and found
• 
  Hotel / Accommodation
• 
  Tickets / Fare adjustment
• 
  Baggage storage
• 
  Coin lockers
• 
  Lounge / Waiting room
• 
  Meeting point
• 
  Bank, money exchange
• 
  Cash service
• 
  Post
• 
  Telephone
• 
  Fax
• 
  Cart
• 
  Elevator
• 
  Escalator
• 
  Stairs
• 
  Nursery
• 
  Cloakroom
• 
  Dressing room
• 
  Dressing room(women)
• 
  Shower
• 
  Bath
• 
  Water fountain
• 
  Trash box
• 
  Collection facility for the recycling products

Transport Facilities

Grade B

• 
  Aircraft / Airport
• 
  Railway / Railway station
• 
  Ship / Ferry / Port
• 
  Helicopter / Heliport
• 
  Bus / Bus stop
• 
  Taxi / Taxi stand
• 
  Rent a car
• 
  Bicycle
• 
  Cable car
• 
  Cable railway
• 
  Parking
• 
  Departures
• 
  Arrivals
• 
  Conecting flights
• 
  Baggage claim
• 
  Customs / Baggage check
• 
  Immigration / Quarantine / Inspection

Commercial Facilities

Grade B

• 
  Restaurant
• 
  Coffee shop
• 
  Bar
• 
  Gasoline station
• 
  Cashier

GradeC

• 
  Shop
• 
  Newspapers,magazines
• 
  Pharmacy
• 
  Barbar / Beauty salon
• 
  Baggage delivery service

Tourism,Culture,Sport Facilities

Grade B

• 
  View point
• 
  Athletic stadium
• 
  Football stadium
• 
  Baseball stadium
• 
  Tennis court
• 
  Swimming place
• 
  Ski ground
• 
  Camp site
• 
  Hot spring

Grade C

• 
  Park
• 
  Museum
• 
  Historical monument
• 
  variant 1
• 
  variant 2

Existing

• 
  Nature reserve
• 
  Sporting activities
• 
  Squash court
• 
  T bar lift
• 
  Chairlift

Safety

Grade A

• 
  Fire extinguisher
• 
  Emergency telephone
• 
  Emergency call button
• 
  Emergency exit
• 
  Safety evacuation area

Prohibition

GradeA

• 
  General prohibition
• 
  No smoking
• 
  No smoking^(*1)
• 
  No open flame
• 
  No entry
• 
  No parking
• 
  No bicycles
• 
  No admittance
• 
  Do not rush
• 
  Do not touch
• 
  Do not throw rubbish
• 
  Not drinking water
• 
  Do not use mobile phones
• 
  Do not use electronic devices
• 
  Do not take photographs
• 
  Do not take flash photographs

*1 Use the symbol below wherever so required by the fire prevention ordinance.

Grade B

• 
  Do not use prams^(*2)
• 
  No swimming
• 
  No camping

*2 Require supporting text

Grade C

• 
  Do not eat or drink here
• 
  No uncaged animals

Warning

Grade A

• 
  General caution
• 
  Caution, obstacles
• 
  Caution, uneven access / up
• 
  Caution, uneven access / down
• 
  Caution, slippery surface
• 
  Caution, drop^(*1)
• 
  Caution, overhead
• 
  Caution, electricity

*1 Require supporting text

Mandatory

Grade A

• 
  General mandatory
• 
  Quiet please
• 
  Please stand on the left^(*1)
• 
  variant / Please stand on the right^(*1)

*1 Require supporting text

Grade B

• 
  Line up in twos^(*2)
• 
  variant 1 / Line up single file^(*2)
• 
  variant 2 / Line up in threes^(*2)
• 
  variant 3 / Line up in fours^(*2)
• 
  Directional arrow
• 
  variants

*2 Require supporting text

Existing

• 
  Close safety bar
• 
  Open safety bar
• 
  Get off
• 
  Raise ski tips
• 
  Skiers have to get off