Universal Design Instruction

Throughout the chapter it discussed how product or web designers should attempt to make things more universal.  One way to accomplish a universal design is by using visual representations or symbols rather than words.  By doing this the instructions transcends into any language making it a lot easier for the user to understand.  In the picture below it shows how an answering machine could be altered to make it easier to use.  The first answering machine uses words to describe what the buttons mean.

In the second answering machine the English language is still used to describe the buttons but it also uses symbols to describe the meaning of some of the buttons.  This is a more universal design because the user does not need to know the English language in order to know how to use the main functions of the machine.

The machine is still not a perfect example of universal design because it still has some functions that depend on language but it is definitely a better design than the first machine.