RE: NPR story on medicine labeling

["Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah -dot- Bouchier -at- exony -dot- com>]

>"Wolf's recent studies show that people often misinterpret the neon
>warning stickers that are placed on pill bottles by pharmacists. Some
of
>the more common ones, such as "Take With Food," or "Medication Should
Be
>Taken with Plenty of Water," are paired with images or icons that are
>confusing. The "For External Use Only" warning comes with a picture of
a
>person with lines radiating around the body. People misinterpret this
>image to mean the medication is radioactive."

Images are used as a 'universal' language; don't read English?  Not a
problem, look at the picture.  The problem is, it's very difficult to
create an unambiguous image; see
http://www.msxnet.org/humour/terror_alert for some more examples... :)

The thing is, if someone can read English, the instructions are so clear
the image is unnecessary.  If someone +can't+ read English, a picture of
the Ready Brek boy* really isn't going to help.

S.
----------------------------------------- 
Sarah Bouchier 
Technical Author 

exony 
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