Simplification of pharmaceutical pictograms to improve legibility

What is it about?

The purpose of pharmaceutical pictograms is to help patients manage their medicinal treatment. However, the pictograms often lack perceptual clarity. While they are frequently tested for aspects such as comprehension, little attention has been paid to their legibility. This paper presents the conception and results of an experiment measuring the visibility of pictogram elements in two sets of pharmaceutical pictograms: 15 American USP pictograms and 15 redesigned versions reduced in complexity. The statistical analysis did not show reliable significant differences, which indicates that there are more factors at stake.

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Why is it important?

Our exploration suggests that for performance to be improved several design factors must work together. A visual inspection of the pictograms indicated that supporting design factors could be (1) minimizing the overlaying of objects, (2) reducing the number of strokes within each object, and (3) reducing perspective.