A “symbol” looks like this:

A “referent” is the term that the symbol was designed to represent. In this case, the referent is “Registration.” In this project, we are trying to design symbols that represent 28 common health setting referents. For a full list of referents used in the project, please click here.

A “definition” is how we describe the referent in words. In this case, the definition of the referent is: “Place to complete medical care forms.” The use of definitions in the first three rounds of testing assured that all testing participants were using the same referent meaning when choosing symbols.