Prayer Room

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Oratory, Worship Room, Multi-faith Prayer Room, Meditation Room, Meditation

Category

Public Facilities, Tourism

Message / Function

To indicate the location of a prayer room or room for meditation

	Source	Description
	Heathrow	Side view of human figure kneeling
	Simlinger	Side view of human figure kneeling
	Eco-Mo Foundation	Side view of human figure kneeling
	Reunion Aeroport	Side view of human figure kneeling
	PANYNJ	Side view of human figure kneeling with hands clasped together
1)	Schiphol	Side view of human figure kneeling with hands clasped together
	Munich Airport	Side view of human figure kneeling with hands clasped together
	CHBA	Front view of face, hands joined in prayer
	O'72	Side view of hands joined in prayer, horizontal bar above
	Erco	Side view of hands joined in prayer

Discussion

The selection of pictograms in the table above illustrates the small number of concepts and variants available to indicate the location of a prayer room or room for meditation.

Data from research is sparse, as only a single pictogram was examined:

Zwaga & Poppinga examined the pictogram variant labeled 1) for the message Prayer Room / Pastoral Care in their undated study Identification and Legibility of Graphic Symbols. In the comprehension task according to ISO 9186:1999 this variant from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport reached a comprehension score of 80.5 . Even regarding that the respondents in this study were mostly persons with higher education, this pictogram seems to be sufficiently comprehensible.

No data on comprehensibility is available for pictograms depicting primarily hands joined in prayer as displayed in the bottom of the table above.

Tests of pictograms of referent Prayer Room

Zwaga, H.J.G. & Poppinga, J.: Identification and Legibility of Graphic Symbols; Towards a standard for public information symbols. Internal Report, Psychological Laboratory, University of Utrecht