Icons

Today I took my husband to the doctor's office and while we were waiting, had to go to the bathroom. Close by was a door that said "Staff" and had a picture of a person. At least I thought it was a generic person until I walked in (I had to go badly so I ignored the "staff" part) and saw that there were urinals.

If I had seen the "person" icon next to the "person with a triangle" icon, I could have figured out what was meant. But the person with a triangle door was not visible from where I was sitting.

The funny thing is that icons are supposed to be easier to read than language. Maybe they are for some--but for me, they are much more ambiguous than most words. For example, I often screw up swiping my credit card because I can't figure out how to orient my card based on the picture, particularly for gas station machines where a two dimensional depiction represents a three-dimensional process. Also, it seems counterintuitive to me to turn my card upsidedown to put it into a machine. I know that is strange, but true.

What I also realized is that where there is language plus an icon, the language takes precedence. If there had only been an icon, then I wouldn't have gone into the wrong room. Somehow, I thought that there might have been a single stall type bathroom for staff (as opposed to multi-stall public bathrooms).

Well, I learned something about the operation of my mind and there was no one inside the men's room, so I wasn't really that embarrassed nor was anyone else. Although I did dream last night that I had gone into the men's room and was actually using the bathroom there. Go figure.