Icons May Mean Confusion By The Dashboard Light

Icons and symbols are replacing words to describe the functions of car knobs, switches and controls and to warn drivers about possible malfunctions. In a global automotive market, avoiding specific languages means making fewer changes when selling the same car in different counties. And that saves money.

From USA TODAY Icons and symbols are replacing words to describe the functions of car knobs, switches and controls and to warn drivers about possible malfunctions.

In a global automotive market, avoiding specific languages means making fewer changes when selling the same car in different counties. And that saves money.

But for drivers and passengers, the symbols can sometimes be indecipherable without a stroll through the owner’s manual.

Automakers, who started using icons at least a decade ago, say consumers accustomed to seeing icons on personal computers and cell phones are comfortable with them in their cars.

”We’re hoping to develop symbols that are easily recognizable,” says Chris Gamble, design manager for interior quality and strategy for General Motors.

That’s good, because as more cars get navigation systems, traction control and other electronic enhancements, the use of icons will increase.

In many cars today, words such as ”headlight,” ”horn” and ”air conditioning” have been replaced with images of a light bulb, a bugle and a snowflake. Few motorists wouldn’t recognize a gas station pump as the icon for the fuel gauge. And most have learned that a seated person with an arrow pointed at various parts of the body indicates the direction of air from the vents.

Those are among 162 icons approved by the International Organization for Standardization and generally agreed to by all automakers as what will be used for various functions if words aren’t used. The approved icons range from the letters ”P” and ”D” for park and drive to exclamation points for engine problems.

The organization, which goes by ISO — Greek for equal — is a network of standardization institutes from 148 countries working together to develop uniform technical standards for almost every industry, including automotive.

ISO is pushing the auto industry to adopt symbols that would be used worldwide.

”Widespread implementation of the ISO standard will be positive for the driving public and the global automotive industry,” says Mark Hurwitz, CEO of the American National Standards Institute, the U.S. member of ISO.

In the U.S., the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) considered adopting all of the standards, making their use mandatory. But the agency backed down after ”several groups said they don’t want to go to all symbols, because symbols are not intuitive and some people would not know what they mean,” says Stephen Kratzke, associate administrator for rulemaking at NHTSA.

Currently, NHTSA has approved 32 symbols, adopted from ISO, that are safety-related and must be used in cars sold in the USA if words aren’t used.

Beyond that, automakers are free to decide what symbols to use — and what they look like.

Even so, icons seem to be becoming more standardized, says David Champion, head of the auto test center for Consumer Reports magazine. ”But they need to be more intuitive so that people know what they mean.”

”It’s all about recognition,” says Gary Braddock, design manager of the product design studio for Ford Motor. ”If you can create a symbol like the Nike swoop that everyone recognizes, you can add a function to the symbol.”

Doug Kisor, chairman of communication design at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, says symbols and icons will be all over navigation and communication systems in cars.

”This environment will require an increasing need to get designs that make symbols easy to understand,” Kisor says. ”Unfortunately, automakers are not always doing a good job.”

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