McDonald’s Universal Icons for 109 Countries [pdf] • Hacker News Board

Re: McDonald’s Universal Icons for 109 Countries [pdf]

#161

Post by thaumasiotes » Mon, Jun 05, 2017, 3:08 AM UTC

throwaway91111 wrote: post #154

thaumasiotes wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is the strategy behind eating oatmeal or rice instead of bread.

Yea. It's still weird as hell to call rice a vegetable as if that's meaningful. Doubly weird to consider rice's vegetable-ness as leading to its carbness. Most of the rice plant is just fiber, nutritiously.

Fiber is a carbohydrate too, you know. What non-vegetable source of carbohydrates do you know of? As far as I'm aware, human dietary carbohydrates overwhelmingly come from (1) grass; (2) potatoes; (3) fruit; or (4) sugar beets. There is a reason for this: carbohydrate is the basic structural material of plants in the same way that protein is the basic structural material of animals.

I guess you could call honey an animal source of carbohydrates. It's not exactly a huge part of any non-hunter-gatherer's diet. And the bees have to make it from flowers.

Re: McDonald’s Universal Icons for 109 Countries [pdf]

#162

Post by RugnirViking » Mon, Jun 05, 2017, 1:07 PM UTC

lomnakkus wrote: post #101

commieneko wrote: post #76

The older I get, the more I'm convinced that icons are not a terribly good way to convey information. Some things and concepts, sure. Others, not so much. Especially in technology and science. Navigation can make good use of icons. Left, right, up, down, start, stop, these kinds of things can be learned and used widely. Somethings like text manipulation icons, cursors, insertions, selections, can be used effectively,…

I don't think it's actually that heretical. Most icons are actually quite culture-specific (i.e. mostly "western") even though we like to think otherwise. A lovely example is the "save" icon which depicts a Diskette -- there are few people these days who have actually physically interacted with a Diskette (of whatever circumference). Another favorite of mine is the "random hand gesture (emot)icon". The conventions fo…

But just because the save icon was bad _when it was made_ doesn't mean you shouldn't use it now. It's part of a universal design language, and trying to pivot to literally any other icon will be fraught with confusion and trouble.

It no longer represents a floppy disk but in most people's minds it is a 'save' in and of itself

Re: McDonald’s Universal Icons for 109 Countries [pdf]

#163

Post by RugnirViking » Mon, Jun 05, 2017, 1:15 PM UTC

stijnstijn wrote: post #122

cwbrandsma wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please be sarcasm please be sarcasm...

It's not an unreasonable question. Sure, only a relatively small percentage of the population of Germany/Poland/etc may not be able to read. But how many of those visit McDonald's? Do they visit it more or less often than other categories of people? How important is it for them to be able to understand these icons? Is the cost of developing icons/signs they also understand more or less than the amount of trouble them…

I would be surprised to find that there would exist a significant proportion of people who simultaneously couldn't read and understood nutrition and proteins

Re: McDonald’s Universal Icons for 109 Countries [pdf]

#164

Post by claar » Mon, Jun 05, 2017, 4:20 PM UTC

13of40 wrote: post #160

yorwba wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just checked a bag of noodles I had lying around, and it uses protein: 蛋白质, fat: 脂肪, sodium: 钠, carbohydrates: 碳水化合物, energy content: 能量 (measured in kJ: 千焦) So there is the additional problem of a. measuring different things (or using different units) and b. using different words to mean the same things.

I think the important question is whether a Chinese reader would understand the character脂 (also 'fat') on its own without the whole phrase, the way we would understand 'carb' or 'cal'.

That's a great thought.. can anyone chime in?