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Article published In:
Information Design Journal
Vol. 26:3 (2021) ► pp.175–192

Simplification of pharmaceutical pictograms to improve visual acuity

ORCID logo | Royal Danish Academy
ORCID logo | Royal Danish Academy
ORCID logo | Royal Danish Academy

The purpose of pharmaceutical pictograms is to help patients manage their medicinal treatment. However, the pictograms often lack perceptual clarity. While they are frequently tested for aspects such as comprehension, little attention has been paid to their legibility. This paper presents the conception and results of an experiment adapted from the ISO ‘Method for testing perceptual quality’ (ISO 9186-2:2008) to measure the visibility of pictogram elements in two sets: 15 American USP pictograms and 15 redesigned versions reduced in complexity. The statistical analysis did not show reliable significant differences, which indicates that there are more factors at stake.

Keywords: pharmaceutical pictograms, legibility, perimetric complexity, test methods, psychophysics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Medicine leaflets
    • 1.2Legibility versus comprehension
    • 1.3Visual complexity
    • 1.4Crowding
  • 2.Experiment
    • 2.1Respondents
    • 2.2Stimuli
    • 2.3Procedure
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1Scoring system
    • 3.2Data analysis
    • 3.3Recognition accuracy
    • 3.4Recognition acuity
  • 4.Qualitative explorations
    • 4.1Perimetric complexity
    • 4.2Effects of crowding
  • 5.Discussion
    • 5.1Identification versus interpretation
    • 5.2Methodological approach and implications of results
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 15 April 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/idj.21003.ped
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