Billiards

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Snooker, Pool, Carom Billiards, Carambole Billiards, French Billiards, Eight-ball, Pocket Billiards

Category

Sports, Cue Sports, Sporting Activities, Activities, Recreation, Tourism, Concessions

Message / Function

For notice in general and to indicate the possibility of playing billards

	Source	Description
	Baden-Baden	Human figure with cue stick, line (billiards table), ball
	CNIS	Human figure with cue stick, line (billiards table), ball
	BS 8501:2002	Human figure with cue stick, line (billiards table), ball
	ÖNORM A 3011	Human figure with cue stick, billiards table, three balls
	Erco	Human figure with cue stick, four balls, horizontal line below
	BTA 1989	Human figure in typical posture of playing billiards, horizontal line in the middle
	Nikita Kozin	Two cue sticks crossed
	Loritas Medina	Two cue sticks crossed, ball at top in the middle
	Icon Solutions	Perspective view of front part of cue stick and two billiard balls
	UoI	Plan view of fifteen billiard balls in a rack, one outside
	Dreyfuss	Plan view of fifteen billiard balls in a rack
	Fauzan Adiima	Plan view of six billiard balls in a rack
	Adrien Coquet	Ten racked billiard balls
	Jasmine Jones	Two billiard balls, with numbers eight and one
	Massimiliano Mauro	The 8 ball: Fat circle with white disk inside, nr 8 in the center
	Serviras Huwae	Plan view of billiards table with six pockets, ball and rack
	Vladvm	Plan view of billiards table with six pockets, ball and rack with ball, two crossed cue sticks

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

Discussion

While there are only few pictograms showing a human figure with cue stick at a billiards table playing billiards, one can find numerous variants of billiard balls in various combinations, just racked or inside a rack, as well as different views of billiards tables.

We could not find any test data concerning graphic symbols for any of the cue sports like Snooker, Pool, Billiards, etc. in our database.

Recommendations

As no information is available on comprehensibility of any of the concepts shown above, we suggest conducting a Comprehension Test for several pictogram variants after selecting the best versions using the Comprehensibility Estimation procedure. At least one pictogram displaying a human figure with cue stick at a billiards table plus one to three balls should be included in the Comprehension Test, as this concept would not be restricted to one specific version of billiards as listed above. To correctly judge the appropriateness of the symbols tested, information about the degree of familiarity with billiards should be obtained, too.

Until then we can recommend using public information symbol No 154 of ÖNORM A 3011 part 10 shown below, or a similar graphical symbol, to indicate the possibility of playing billards. This pictogram fits for variants of the game played on pocketless billiard tables as well as ones with pockets, for games with three balls or more.

ÖNORM A 3011 Public Information Symbol No 154: Billiard