DESIGNING UNIVERSAL VISUOTACTILE PICTOGRAMS FOR ORIENTATION MAPS
Résumé
Pictograms are used in all domains of our daily life, in orientation maps in particular. They can be depicted visually or tactually for blind people. The problem is that these existing pictograms are not standardized. The aim of this study was to develop a range of visuotactile orientation pictograms, which would be understandable by adults, children, elderly, foreigners and people with visual disability. We conducted three studies: Study 1 aimed to make sighted users (adults and children) evaluate a set of visuotactile pictograms designed initially for blind users concerning their perceptual and cognitive processes. The results show that many of these pictograms proved to be too specific to be understandable by the general population. To complement the data, we analyzed the impact of colours on the understanding of pictograms by sighted users (Study 2). Finally, we conducted a series of creative workshops with sighted adults, blind adults and sighted children (Study 3) in order to generate a new set of universal visuotactile pictograms. This research contribution is twofold: from a methodological viewpoint, we experienced and observed the limitations of two approaches (top-down and bottom-up) to design universal pictograms.
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