Ambulance

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Ambulance Van, Ambulance Truck, Emergency First Aid Vehicle, Patient Transport Ambulance, PTA, Patient Transport Service, Emergencies

Category

Public Facilities, Safety, Services, Health Care

Message / Function

To indicate an emergency first aid vehicle or a place from which an emergency first aid vehicle can be called

	Source	Description
	ÖNORM A 3011	Side view of van with cross, signal light above
	Argentina MSV	Side view of van with signal light and cross
	Handbuch wien.gv.at	Side view of van with signal light and cross, all in outline
	ON Testdesign	Side view of van with signal light and cross
	ON Testdesign	Side view of van with signal light and cross
	Hablamos Juntos	Side view of van with signal light and cross
	CDC 2012	Side view of van with signal light and cross
	ON Testdesign	Side view of van with signal light and cross
	ON Testdesign	Side view of van with cross
	Aku-Johnson	Side view of van with cross
	ISO 7000	Side view of van with cross inside filled circle
	Renner	Side view of front part of an emergency first aid vehicle
	ON Testdesign	Front view of van with signal lights and cross
	ON Testdesign	Front view of van with signal light and cross
	D'source	Front view of van in outline, with signal light and cross
	OAP	Top view of stretcher with cross in the middle
	Dreyfuss	Top view of stretcher with cross in the middle

Note: Some of the examples shown above were mirrored horizontally to contrast differences.

Discussion

The collection above indicates a possible visual stereotype for Ambulance: the side view of a van with signal light and cross. Other image contents are sparse.

A few studies present research covering several pictogram variants for this referent. These papers offer some useful information:

Brugger (1992 a) inspected eight pictogram variants, all showing either a side view or a front view of a van with signal light and cross, by applying an Appropriateness Ranking Test. The six best ranked variants then were tested for comprehensibility (Brugger, 1992 b). All of these elicited more than 95 % correct responses when using lenient scoring. Renderings of ambulances with signal lights surrounded by lines indicating that the lights are turned on generally performed better than variants without these lines. Placing the cross inside a circle as shown in some examples above does not improve comprehensibility and is therefore probably a useless detail.

The variant provided by the Hablamos Juntos project reached excellent comprehension scores in both samples of a study comparing comprehensibility of medical pictograms in rural Tanzania and the United States of America (Zender & Cassedy, 2014). A study of way-finding symbols for healthcare facilities conducted in the United Arab Emirates shows a very similar variant that was well understood: in a Comprehension Test, carried out with a sample consisting mostly of young and well educated respondents, the comprehension rate reported for this pictogram is 97 % (Hashim et al., 2014).

A top view of a stretcher with a cross in the middle as shown at the bottom of the table above was sometimes also used as symbol for First Aid, for example at the Summer Olympics in Munich 1972. This illustrates the overlapping semantic space of the referents Ambulance, Emergency and First Aid.

Recommendation

Regarding the test results available we recommend showing the side view of a van with signal light and cross to indicate an emergency first aid vehicle or a place from which an emergency first aid vehicle can be called. The cross used to indicate medical care may be substituted with another symbol appropriate to the culture of the using country.

Tests of pictograms of referent Ambulance

Brugger, Ch. (1992 a): Reihungstest 1992. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) FNA 133 dated August 1992, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1992 b): Verständnistest 1992. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) dated October 1992, Vienna.

Brugger, Ch. (1999): Public information symbols: a comparison of ISO testing procedures. In: Zwaga, H., Boersema, T. & Hoonhout, H. (Eds.): Visual information for everyday use. London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.

Hashim, M. J., Alkaabi, M. S., & Bharwani, S. (2014): Interpretation of way-finding healthcare symbols by a multicultural population: navigation signage design for global health. Applied ergonomics, 45(3), 503–509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2013.07.002

Zender, M., & Cassedy, A.E. (2014): (Mis)understanding: Icon Comprehension in Different Cultural Contexts. Visible Language, 48, 69.