Farmers Interpretation of Pesticides Pictograms and Their Adherence to Different Ergonomic Principles for Different Sizes.

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the size of pesticide pictograms on comprehensibility and their adherence to principles of familiarity, compatibility, and standardization. Pictograms usually involve complex details, and space limitation demands size reductions, which reduces overall comprehensibility, especially in agriculture and healthcare.

Methods: Two experiments were conducted. In experiment 1, the effect of different sizes of pictograms on comprehension was tested. In experiment 2, the level of compliance for different ergonomic principles on different sizes of pictograms was investigated.

Results: Results of experiment 1 indicated significant variation in comprehension level (p < .05), with maximum comprehension for the size 15 mm × 15 mm (87.6%) and minimum comprehension for the size 7 mm × 7 mm (69.4%). Results of experiment 2 indicated significant variation in compliance of ergonomic principles with different pictogram sizes (p < .05), with maximum compliance for the size 15 mm × 15 mm (7.7, 7.7, 7.6) and minimum compliance for the size 7 mm × 7 mm (6.3, 6.3, 6.3). A significant increase in the comprehensibility of pictograms and their adherence to familiarity, compatibility, and standardization was observed with the increase in the sizes of pictograms.

Conclusion: The smallest size of pictograms with a mean comprehension level ≥ 65% and scores for familiarity, compatibility, and standardization ≥ 7 (on a scale of 1 to 10) was 10 mm × 10 mm. The potential application of this research is to identify the most comprehensible size of pictograms that adhere to the principles of familiarity, compatibility, and standardization.