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Facts and data on pictograms Literature

Handball

Category

Sports, Ball Sports, Team Sports, Sporting Activities, Activities, Recreation, Tourism

Message / Function

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

 

Source Description
Summer Olympics Munich 1972: Pictogram Handball O'72 Human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone
Abdullah & Hübner page 75, Summer Olympics Moscow 1980: Pictogram Handball O'80 Human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone
BS 8501 Public Information Symbol No 9027: Handball BS 8501:2002 Human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone
Summer Olympics Seoul 1988, Pictogram: Handball O'88 Human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone
Summer Olympics Tokyo 2021: Pictogram Handball O'21 Human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone
Pictogram Handball used by City of Vienna Wien BfS Human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone
Hora page 161, Public Information Symbol Handball CNIS Human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone
Summer Olympics London 2012: Pictogram Handball O'12 Human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone
Summer Olympics Tokyo 1964: Pictogram Handball O'64 Human figure throwing the ball
Icon No 545792: Handball by Amoghdesign Amoghdesign Handball
Summer Olympics Paris 2024: Pictogram Handball O'24 Plan view of handball field, superimposed with handball framed by square

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

Discussion

Pictograms found - mainly from Olympic games - frequently show a move typical for handball: a human figure throwing the ball while "diving" into the 6-meter zone. As other image contents are rare, this could be seen as a visual stereotype for the referent Handball.

In our research we did not discover any test data on comprehen­sibility of pictograms concerning Handball, but the typical images shown above should be quite comprehensible. Just showing a handball as in the pictogram example by Amoghdesign in the table above does not guarantee sufficient differentiation from other ball sports like Football or Volleyball.

Recommendations

We suggest to conduct a Comprehension Test with pictograms covering the basic concepts available to identify possible mis­interpretations concerning other ball sports. Detailed information about the most frequent responses given in each of the response categories must be supplied for each pictogram variant tested to correctly judge comprehensibility and improve designs, if necessary. On such a basis the best decision concerning a specific recom­men­dation can be reached.

See also

Football, Volleyball, Basketball

 

Updated 2024-10-07 by Ch.Brugger