Measuring symbol and icon characteristics: norms for concreteness, complexity, meaningfulness, familiarity, and semantic distance for 239 symbols

• Published in: Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 487 - 519
• Main Authors: McDougall, S J, Curry, M B, de Bruijn, O
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01-08-1999
• Subjects: Communication; Female; Humans; Language; Male; Psycholinguistics; Reference Values; Reproducibility of Results; Semantics; Wales; Wales
• ISSN: 0743-3808; 1532-5970
• DOI: 10.3758/BF03200730

This paper provides rating norms for a set of symbols and icons selected from a wide variety of sources. These ratings enable the effects of symbol characteristics on user performance to be systematically investigated. The symbol characteristics that have been quantified are considered to be of central relevance to symbol usability research and include concreteness, complexity, meaningfulness, familiarity, and semantic distance. The interrelationships between each of these dimensions is examined and the importance of using normative ratings for experimental research is discussed.