Green, Yellow, Red. A nearly universal visual cue indicating yes, maybe, no, or good, average, bad. What are some other visual cues that relay the same meaning? January 12, 2010 11:57 AMSubscribe
Green, Yellow, Red. A nearly universal visual cue indicating yes, maybe, no, or good, average, bad. What are some other visual cues that convey the same three option meaning? posted by ShootTheMoon to media & arts (30 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
A checkmark and x, when used on buttons in computer interfaces, usually indicates yes or no, or ok and cancel. Also: thumbs up and thumbs down. Smiley face, neutral face, or sad face. Letter grades A, B, C, D, F. posted by lsemel at 11:59 AM on January 12, 2010
How about thumbs up, that hovering hand gesture that means "sort of" or "it's iffy", and thumbs down. posted by XMLicious at 12:00 PM on January 12, 2010
Stars, as used in movie or restaurant reviews. posted by lsemel at 12:01 PM on January 12, 2010
Eyebrows up (non-negative)
No expression change (neutral, no change)
Eyebrows down (negative) posted by nickjadlowe at 12:03 PM on January 12, 2010
Japan uses circle for yes/good, triangle for not-terrible-but-not-optimal, X for no/bad -- with concentric/spiraling circles for "very good." posted by Jeanne at 12:04 PM on January 12, 2010
oh my ... thumbs up does very definitely NOT mean anything universal.
the wikipedia page has some citations and looks ok.
but i remember from SOC 100 in college that even things like holding your hand out and saying "oh about yay high" isn't even universal - in mexico, there are 3 different hand gestures for height : adults, children, and plants/animals. (i may have gotten that wrong, but i know there was specifically one for children that you wouldn't use when talking about an adult).
so...opposite of your question but just clearning that up for any unfortunate travelers who want to give a thumbs up while abroad. posted by sio42 at 12:10 PM on January 12, 2010
High, mid, low
Full, half-full (optimist here), empty
Light/white, gray, dark/black
Up, non-directional, down
Big, average, small
I realize that you probably wanted actual examples, but I was looking at this question from a conceptual and visual metaphor angle, and this is what I came up with. I'm sure you can find manifestations of these concepts on everything from refrigerators to traffic signs and beyond. posted by iamkimiam at 12:12 PM on January 12, 2010
Not as ideal as some other options, but on gauges, you can have the arrow pointing to the far right (generally good), hovering in the middle, and on the far left (generally bad).
I'm not sure how those would read in cultures with right-to-left writing (?). posted by Alt F4 at 12:12 PM on January 12, 2010
By the way, these are questions that come up in the field of information design. Tufte and (Stephen) Few would be good names to look into for that. (Few moreso than Tufte, in that Few specializes in "dashboard design," which very often deals with good/middling/bad status reports.) posted by Alt F4 at 12:15 PM on January 12, 2010
Some of my elementary school teachers graded with a check-minus, check, check-plus system. posted by juliplease at 12:19 PM on January 12, 2010
From the gadget world: Cell phone reception bars (usually five, but can be reduced to three) and battery life indicators (full, half, red/nearly empty). posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 12:25 PM on January 12, 2010
A vertical head oscillation for Yes, a shoulder shrug for Maybe, and a horizontal head oscillation for No.
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For a color AND shape visual cue: A green circle for Yes, a yellow exclamation point for Maybe, and a red circle with slash for No. posted by surfgator at 12:42 PM on January 12, 2010
> greater than
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+ equal to posted by surfgator at 12:43 PM on January 12, 2010
argghh.. you HTML!! posted by surfgator at 12:43 PM on January 12, 2010
1, 0, blank (or checkmark, X, blank, etc) posted by BaxterG4 at 12:45 PM on January 12, 2010
I think you shake your head yes (and nod "no") in Bulgaria and some of the places in the Caucasus. posted by small_ruminant at 12:47 PM on January 12, 2010
The Yuck face is pretty universal as no or bad. Thumbs up/down is in no way universal. In some countries it means "shove it up your ass." posted by nestor_makhno at 12:57 PM on January 12, 2010
The Ski Trail rating system is used world wide: Green Circle (easy/beginner), Blue Square (moderate/competent), Black Diamond (difficult/expert). Some places use Double Black Diamond to distinguish the phenonenally diffiult from the merely hard (or as a marketing device/evidence of grade inflation). posted by carmicha at 1:20 PM on January 12, 2010
Head shaking is not universal. I think in southern India, "yes" is the vertical side-to-side wiggle (not like an american "no," but like the direction you go to stretch your neck).
...among other variations. posted by cmoj at 1:47 PM on January 12, 2010
Clarification, please: ShootTheMoon, are you specifically looking for three-option cues? posted by box at 2:19 PM on January 12, 2010
red -- positive DC voltage
black -- negative DC voltage
green -- ground posted by Confess, Fletch at 2:33 PM on January 12, 2010
The Wong-Baker Faces Pain Scale is six gradients, but it's the same idea. It's intended to be a non-language dependent way to measure pain in children, but I've also seen it used where there's a language barrier. posted by min at 7:11 PM on January 12, 2010
The Ski Trail rating system is used world wide: Green Circle (easy/beginner), Blue Square (moderate/competent), Black Diamond (difficult/expert). Some places use Double Black Diamond to distinguish the phenonenally diffiult from the merely hard (or as a marketing device/evidence of grade inflation).
There are very few truly global things that will mean the same intuitive thing to any given person in China, Chile, Chad , Croatia and Canada. Now if you can start assuming some things about your user populations that you scope of potential choices increases. One of the biggest examples is that in China, Red is a lucky, "good" color whereas the average Westerner assigns the meaning of stop/danger/bad to the color red. posted by mmascolino at 8:10 PM on January 12, 2010
Tick, Cross, Question mark for Yes, No, Maybe? posted by James Scott-Brown at 7:49 AM on January 13, 2010
I heard a story which might be apocryphal or plain old propaganda, but in it Stalin showed Lenin a list of people whose political activity he was worried about. Lenin made a checkmark to show that he'd seen and understood the list. Stalin, however, interpreted the checkmark as "go ahead and kill them" and had them all executed. posted by small_ruminant at 10:25 AM on January 13, 2010
Actually, it seems ticks aren't universal either: the Tick (check mark) wikipedia entry states that `In some European countries (e.g., Finland and Sweden), and in Japan, the tick can be used as an error mark and indicates "no" rather than "yes"'. posted by James Scott-Brown at 6:04 AM on January 15, 2010
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posted by lsemel at 11:59 AM on January 12, 2010