Using Symbols in Business Presentations: How Well Are They Understood?

N

12

Business; Business Administration Education; Graphic Arts; Higher Education; Illustrations; Questionnaires; Visual Aids; Visual Learning; Visual Literacy; Visual Perception; Visual Stimuli

The focus of this study was to measure the communicative power of business symbols with a business audience. A panel of three people selected 15 appropriate business symbols which then appeared on a questionnaire which showed each symbol with a blank space for the respondent to provide a one word or short answer of the symbol's meaning. Eighty-eight first year Master's of Business Administration (MBA) students enrolled at Penn State University were give the questionnaire. The responses were tabulated by one person who classified the answers into five categories: perfect, close, arena, inappropriate, or no response. Implications of this study include: people mistake or do no know the meaning of many symbols; subjects make rapid judgements about the meaning of symbols and, as a result, people should not rely on symbols to convey in-depth or critical meanings as they do not convey accurate meanings; and that image perception is relative to the context in which it is viewed. A next step with this study is to measure recognition of those symbols with international audiences. The questionnaire and responses are included in the appendix. (Contains 7 references.) (JLB)

1994

ED370553