Zoo

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Zoological Garden

Category

Public Facilities, Tourism, Heritage Attractions, Entertainment

Message / Function

To indicate the location of a public zoo

	Source	Description
	Düsseldorf Airport	Silhouette of the upper part of a giraffe, fence below, word ZOO on the left
	SVI	Side view of zebra in front of silhouette of a giraffe
	CNIS	Side views of monkey and deer
	SWISSTRAFFIC	Side view of deer, fence
	GSR Portugal	Side view of elephant
	DER	Side view of elephant
	ISO 7001	Silhouette of an elephant
	BTA 1989	Silhouette of an elephant
	WTO-Iraq	Side view of bear
	WTO-Argentina	Side view of lion
	Lance Wyman	Head of eagle and chick
	EJP	Footprint of animal

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

Discussion

The set of symbols above already indicates that no single visual stereotype exists concerning the message Zoo or Zoological Garden. Designs range from all kinds of renderings of elephants, concepts with the additional text ZOO, to solutions showing footprints of animals.

In our research we discovered that there is only very limited test data available:

When Fiori (2008) examined a map symbol almost identical with the version labled DER in the table above, 64.3 % of the responses were classified as correct. 9.7 % of the participants answered with Elephant. Wrong answers registered were among others: Circus, Wild Animal, and Safari.

Neves (2012) examined three pictograms - all showing side views or silhouettes of elephants with varying degree of detail - on basis of the Comprehensibility Estimation procedure, where the best variant reached a mean value of 83.8 and the others 75.6 and 73.4, indicating this image content might be comprehensable enough.

In some countries (e.g. South Africa) pictograms displaying a single animal like an elephant, lion, or a rhinoceros are used to indicate the location of a park for this kind of animals: Elephant Park, Lion Park, and so on. Thefeore it might be unwise to show just one single species.

Recommendations

We suggest to develop additional pictogram variants, including designs showing more than one species like the Chinese variant (CNIS) and the traffic sign from Italy (SVI). Then studies comparing several or all concepts should be conducted. The study design should also include a Comprehension Test to identify possible misinterpretations and to improve designs. Only on such a basis a clear decision concerning a specific recommendation can be reached.

Tests of pictograms of referent Zoo

Fiori, S. R. (2008): Mapas para o turismo e a interatividade - proposta teórica e prática. Tese de Doutorado - Depto. de Geografia, FFLCH-USP.

Neves, J. (2012): Sistema de signos para informação turística: Metodologia para o desenvolvimento de sistemas sinaléticos. Tese de Doutorado - Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Arquitetura.