"Thomas Prufer" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 30 Oct 2017 14:43:29 -0700 (PDT),
wrote:

On Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 12:00:26 PM UTC+1, Mark Carver wrote:
A friend is puzzled by a symbol on his new boiler's control panel.

It shows a Top Hat and Ladder ? !

See pictu-

http://www.markyboy.net/Top-hat+ladder.jpg

Why, and what does it all mean ?

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

www.paras.org.uk

What the absolute HELL is this top hat and ladder? WOW, I mean, its bad
enough we don't have any heating, whats worse is we can't understand a
thing thats going on because were not in the monopoly game. Why? I can't
understand, I am not a monopoly sized human, nor thimble, nor boot, nor
battle ship. Please send help, SOS.

This typifies everything that is bad about icons. I'm sure it was very
obvious to the person who designed the icons that a top hat and a ladder
"obviously" signify whatever it is that they signify. But I haven't a clue.
Maybe there's a vague association between a ladder and a tradesman - as in
"don't do this yourself, get a skilled heating engineer". What's the
significance of the rocket that's been crossed-out (above the "-"). And the
person symbol - what is the meaning of that in the context of a boiler? The
circle with a triangle inside (top display) is probably the timer, but
what's the double-triangle to its right?

I have no problem with well-known icons like the play/ff/rew/pause icons on
tape recorders, CD players etc; the petrol pump symbol on a car's fuel
gauge; - and + for decreasing and increasing a quantity. But there are many
icons where I can't even work out what the icon depicts, never mind what it
signifies.

I'd like to see greater use made of words - maybe in addition to icons.
Being English, I'd make a case for those words being English, not only
because it's my language but also because it's probably the most
commonly-understood second language. At least you can look up a work in a
dictionary (assuming you know what language it is!) whereas you can't look
up an icon in an alphabetic list.