method.ac/test

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I don’t want to influence the results of the test, so sorry if I don’t give much background!

I’ll publish the results when the experiment is over, thanks!

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u/RetroEvolute:

Some of the wording made me unsure if I was voting correctly. Since it says “most comprehensible symbol”, I want to select the icon that best explains the situation assuming no prior knowledge. Meanwhile, as designers, sometimes we make a decision outside of the obvious for aesthetics or in support of certain technologies. I would argue that my choices in this poll were not the most comprehensive symbols, but my preferred symbols.

Also, the use of color in two icons among the entire set really bugged me, since there was no generic choice of black cross for first aid. If all of the preferred icons listed there were to go on the same page, the red or green would stand out too much. Yet, I don’t want some silly icon of of a bandaged hand, either. That removes much of the ambiguity that comes along with the medical cross by itself, by becoming too specific.

English is not my native language, so you might be able to help me out. I want users to select whatever they feel is more understandable, would swapping “comprehensible” for “understandable” make it clearer?

And on your second comment: yes, I know, it bugs me as a designer too. But there are some elements of meaning in the color. The European Union guidelines for wayfinding signage states that “first aid” should be a white cross on a green background, and there’s no way around this.

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u/logimech:

I wish it would have published the results immediately after taking the test. Regret spending the time now, to be honest.

Also, developer and designer aren’t mutually exclusive. A “both” category might be appropriate.

I know what you mean. I have run the same experiment in Spanish displaying the results at the end, and I had trouble with people repeating the test and skewing the results. In the end it’s no different from a poll, and if you see results that don’t match your expectations you try to pull the balance on your side.

The problem with a “both” category is that I want to compare the results from each field. A good programmer with a bit of design skills would choose “both” and I’d have to throw away that data. Most people don’t consider themselves a perfect 50%/50% mix.

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u/logimech:

Agreed on the potential of throwing it out, but wouldn’t it be better to do so? A hybrid choosing one or the other would weaken the resulting correlations if there were any, assuming that their preferences are a mix of the two.

In Forrst (a designer/developer community) it asks you if you are a developer, designer or both. If you have an account you can view a partial member list here:

http://forrst.com/people/directory

Around 50% call themselves “designer and developer”. Seeing the real world scarcity of true ambidextrous professionals, I’m guessing most are good programmers with some Photoshop skills, or web designers who know some html and know how to include a jQuery plug-in.

So, for the sake of this small experiment, I’m asking people to chose a side. If it was larger scale perhaps I could afford to lose all that data.

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u/RetroEvolute:

A side note, so that I don’t edit my post and you miss it: I get what the colors are there for, it just doesn’t always make sense to use them. You can typically get the idea across while staying within the bounds of your design. In this case, I might put a rounded corner box around the black cross to represent first aid (recognizable as a med kit), while keeping away from distracting colors out of the design’s palette.

The symbols have tested before on well designed studies. That’s why I can’t change them. This might give you a glimpse into what I’m trying to find out ;)

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u/logimech:

I see, that’s fair and a very good point.

Thanks for the link to Forrst.com, btw. I never knew about this site, but it’s right up my alley.

Usually invites are hard to come by, but today the owner posted a special code on hacker news: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2834051

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