etherlands and Flanders (Belgium).
At the start of the corona crisis, governments had to communicate about all kinds of new measures that citizens had to adhere to, for example ‘keep 1.5 meters distance’ and ‘avoid crowds’. It was important to share this information in an understandable way, given that Dutch is not the mother tongue of all citizens, and the written word can form a barrier. Icons, highly simplified images that express a message, could help to optimize communication with these groups. The idea is that images are easier to understand than written language. But is that true?
Charlotte van Hooijdonk and Lisanne van Weelden of Utrecht University conducted research into this at the request of the Municipality of The Hague (The Netherlands) and the City of Ghent (Belgium) and on behalf of the Taalunie (Language Union). In this webinar Charlotte presents the striking and sometimes startling results.