From: lproven at
gmail.com ---snip---> >
Icons, pictograms and so on need no translation and little literacy.> > This concept
is elaborated well in Neal Stephenson's /The Diamond Age/.>
The problem is that even pictorial icons require context. They are
as useless as another language if the user can't determine what the
symbol refers to.
I'm entering on a Windows Live mail tool. About the only symbol that
makes any sense is the closed envelope. Others I recognize because
I use them often. I could just as easily have learned Chinese symbols
for these functions.
As reference, read Jef Raskin's ( note: proper use this time ) book.
Making universal symbols is just as limiting and using language. In many
cases worse. It was a nice idea that just wasn't based on fact. Now
we are all stuck with it.
Dwight
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