I would be willing to bet almost anyone that they couldn't make it through 24 hours without using some sort of visual symbol to help them in their day. The cues we get from these daily symbols are something we have to learn throughout the course of our lives but they become incredibly important in our day-to-day activities, oftentimes without us even noticing.
(www.publicdomainpictures.net)
This stock photo is just a set of painted white lines on some cement, yet you likely know what it is without needing much more information. The photo is of a crosswalk, and it's something that most people use nearly every day without thinking about it. White lines painted in this particular pattern has become associated with a safe crossing in most people's minds.
Why do people stop at stoplights and stop signs? Other than the fact that the law mandates that they do, people learn to associate the color red with stopping. The shape and color of a stop sign convey the message well enough that most people would stop even if the word stop was removed from the sign.
The above image is one that I drew quickly in Microsoft Word (which I opened by clicking an icon, without reading any text). Lining things up using a touch-pad on a laptop is frustrating, but for this blog post all the lines are straight enough. I use this symbol on a daily basis when I am trying to get to class. Sometimes there are words on the sign, but oftentimes it is just a gray sign with a couple of black line segments organized like my drawing above. With or without words on the sign, this symbol is enough to let me know the stairs I am looking for are nearby.
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