Re: Standards for warning icons

[Kathleen MacDowell <kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com>]

Great references, Robert, thanks!

However, I'm not so sure I agree with IEEE's guidelines for warnings. They
say not to include warnings in informative text, which I'm assuming would
include a set of procedures. They also say if a warning is "general", i.e.,
it applies to all the content, it should be at the beginning of a document
and not repeated.

For safety and liability, electro-mechanical companies I've worked for
allowed or wanted both general and specific warnings. I can't think of any
situations where I'd let one warning serve for an entire document.

I'll be interested in others comments on this issue.

Kathleen

On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>wrote:

> "Warning" is to be used only in circumstances that may lead to injury
> or death, otherwise you should use "caution."
>
> http://standards.ieee.org/guides/style/section7.html
>
> http://www.decalcentral.com/content/ansi-iso-standards
>
>
> http://webstore.ansi.org/RecordDetail.aspx?sku=ANSI+Z535+SERIES&source=package_landing_page
>
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2009 at 8:30 AM, Nancy Allison<maker -at- verizon -dot- net> wrote:
> > I need resources to figure out an intelligent standard for warning icons
> for my client. I'm working at a place that makes high-voltage equipment that
> is used around the world by people with varying levels of English
> competence, and the danger of electrocution is real. By the way, I have no
> resources to do usability tests with our international clients, so actual
> data from them is not available to me.
> >
> > Currently, our template provides these icons:
> >
> > Bodily Injury
> > Burns!
> > Caution!
> > CE
> > Danger!
> > Explosion!
> > Eye!
> > Fire!
> > Fumes!
> > Ground
> > Input
> > Note!
> > Output
> > Poison!
> > Puncture!
> > Safe
> > Voltage!
> > Warning!
> >
> > Some are puzzling (Input, Output, Safe). If you know of a standard that
> uses and explains them, please tell me about it.
> >
> > In practice, I have seen only Note! and Warning! used in documents. I
> don't even see Caution! used.
> >
> > The icons themselves are of varying clarity. The lightening bolt for
> Voltage is probably pretty clear to most human beings, but a lot of them are
> anybody's guess. The Note and Warning icons are both an exclamation mark,
> one in a square and one in a triangle. There's no significance to the shapes
> that I know of. In short, the icons do not rise to the level of a
> universally comprehensible visual language. To complicate matters, the icons
> are labeled in English, with Puncture! Fumes!, etc., as necessary. These
> labels will all have to be translated in the subset of our documents that
> *is* translated.
> >
> > My big question is, is it valuable to have all these
> specific-but-confusing icons whose purpose is to indicate the nature of the
> danger?
> >
> > Warning! clearly indicates to every reader that there is physical danger,
> and they need to read the text in the big, ugly, intrusive text box to find
> out what it is. Is there an argument to be made for having a specific icon,
> like Eye! (which shows a nerdy guy wearing glasses), so that readers can
> probably figure out that there is physical danger, in this case to their
> eyes?
> >
> > I believe that the overriding, compelling purpose of icons is to make it
> instantly clear whether an action may kill or injure a human being.
> (Secondarily, all other icons indicate whether something may damage
> equipment or data, or may make their life easier.)
> >
> > Whether the danger of bodily harm occurs through fumes, punctures, etc.,
> etc., is a distinctly secondary purpose.  Therefore, I'd like to get rid of
> all the specific danger icons and use only the Warning icon. The text can
> explain the specific danger.
> >
> > However, I'm not moving a muscle until I've researched this issue
> thoroughly. Maybe there is a widely respected standard that argues
> otherwise. If you document dangerous equipment or processes, please tell me
> what standards you follow. If there is a professional standard you adhere
> to, I would love to know about it.  Thanks, all.
> >
> > --Nancy
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> 2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
> http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
>
> Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
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-- 
Kathleen MacDowell
www.writefortheuser.com
kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com
kathleen -dot- eamd -at- gmail -dot- com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help  
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices.
http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/

Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/

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