Firewood

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Firewood Cutting

Category

Recreation, Tourism, Management

Message / Function

For notice in general and to indicate the location of firewood

	Source	Description
	Parks Canada	Axe, pile of logs inside containment
	U.S. National Park Service	Axe, pile of logs
	U.S. National Park Service	Axe placed diagonally, logs on the right, below
	lastspark	Side view of front ends of pile of logs inside containment
	rdesign	Parallel projection of pile of logs

Discussion

The set of pictograms found for indicating the location of firewood is rather limited, and the second one presented from the U.S. National Park Service in the table above is intended for the message Firewood Cutting. Searching for pictograms online using the search term Firewood yields numerous variants also showing a fire. Such pictograms pose a high risk of being misunderstood.

In our research we did not discover any test data concerning the referent Firewood, so no statement can be made concerning comprehensibility of the pictograms available. We question, whether a differentiation between Firewood and Firewood Cutting can be expected without any specific learning process just from the image content itself. The authors of the Guidelines for the Parks Canada Identity Program from the year 2007 added the status information Text message required for applications of their pictogram.

Recommendations

We suggest to develop additional pictogram variants and to compare all concepts available to identify the best image content. The study design should also include a Comprehension Test to identify possible misinterpretations. Detailed information about the most frequent responses given in each of the response categories should be provided to correctly judge comprehensibility and improve designs. Only on such a basis a clear decision concerning a specific recommendation can be reached.