Re: Interesting visuals on control panel

[Ken Poshedly <poshedly -at- bellsouth -dot- net>]

Icon-based controls are where it is and it ain't gonna change -- especially when 
producing goods for multilingual markets.

My company is a China-based manufacturer or heavy construction equipment such as 
crawler cranes, rough terrain cranes, concrete pump trucks, motor 
scraper/graders, hydraulic excavators and much, much more. While it actually 
sells somewhere near 5,000 excavators alone within China in a financial quarter 
(due to its burgeoning economy), it also sells and delivers that product and 
many others as well around the rest of the world (minus Antarctica, as pointed 
out elsewhere).

The control panels are icon-based with apparently universal symbols because that 
is what works; no more worrying about correctly translated words for functions 
(boy-oh-boy, you wouldn't believe some of the English-language stuff from the 
home office we get here at our U.S. offices in metro Atlanta).

So the hare and turtle are commonly used in our machines, as are little pictures 
representing other functions. 


For instance, a simplified image of a steel beam with a vertical post dropping 
down at one end but with the horizontal beam drawn with thicker lines designates 
the 3-position rocker switch for extending, stopping or retracting the 
outriggers (on rough terrain cranes and concrete pump trucks). The same icon but 
with the vertical post in thicker lines designates the 3-position rocker switch 
for extending, stopping or retracting the outrigger jacks. And so on and so on.

And if you are at all familiar with the industry in which you work, these icons 
and their functions are obvious, so any personal worries about potential 
confusion are unfounded. From my way of thinking, anybody able to get hired and 
who then climbs into the cab of a rough terrain crane and asks aloud what "that 
there switch is for" would probably be walked off the construction site. 
Permanently.

-- Kenpo
(Writing about huge Tonka toys for "big" boys)




________________________________
From: "Brian -dot- Henderson -at- mitchell1 -dot- com" <Brian -dot- Henderson -at- mitchell1 -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Sent: Wed, November 17, 2010 10:58:05 AM
Subject: RE: Interesting visuals on control panel

My take on this technique is to wonder whether these animals exist in
all potential markets. It doesn't seem universal enough, for my taste.

-BH

-----Original Message-----From: Jan Axelson

Yesterday I happened to see the control panel on a cherry 
picker/aerial lift. The speed control had no text. Instead there were 
two images - a hare at the top and a tortoise at the bottom. In 
between was a bar that tapered from top to bottom.

Since the tortoise in the fable wins the race, maybe the images send 
a subtle message to get going but take it slow?

Jan

--
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. 
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try 
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as poshedly -at- bellsouth -dot- net -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit 
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/poshedly%40bellsouth.net


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. 
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try 
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. 
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info. 

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat