Speed user research question #2: Do people understand laundry care symbols?/ It is NOT a boob

Before you go any further, do you know what those four laundry symbols above mean?

Recently I wrote an article arguing that film ratings are not always understood (1). I have been thinking more about whether other familiar-looking labels and symbols serve their purpose.

Standardised laundry symbols were implemented in 1966 (2). There are various standards around the world, with the UK following the European standards ISO 3758 (3). The purpose of these symbols is to give consumers information on how best to clean and dry fabrics in order to preserve their condition for longer (4).

Last week I texted 15 friends and family, asking them if they could name the four common laundry symbols I hand-drew (above).

Results 

“If I’m worried about ruining something in the wash, I just ask my mum to come collect it” - Friend

1. Triangle with the cross through it means ‘do not bleach’. Two people out of 15 got this right. Two people thought it was ‘do not iron’ which makes some sense as the bottom of an iron is a bit triangular. 
2. Square with circle containing one dot means ‘tumble dry on low heat’. Four people (27%) got this right. Three people said it looks like a boob or ‘boob in a box’. I will not name these people but I hope they are not proud of themselves.
3. Circle with a cross through it means 'do not tumble dry'. Three out of 15 people got this right.
4. Basin with single line underneath means reduced spin speed/synthetics wash. Five people got the wash part right but only one person specified synthetics. Some people thought it meant hand-wash.

Only one person out of 15 got all four answers correct but she acknowledged she is “a laundry geek”. It goes to show you can know someone for a lifetime but not really know them. Some people said they do not look at the label because they do not understand the pictures.

Almost half the respondents (7/15) got every symbol completely wrong. One of those people was my mum, who tried to use "But I’m Chinese" as an excuse even though she has lived in the UK for 50 years years and China has similar laundry symbols (3). At least now I know why my childhood was spent in bobbly clothes.

When I actually looked at the European standard, the symbols are not as complicated as they seem. However it does require knowing some basics like a square with a circle is a dryer, which is not that obvious as in real life a washing machine looks like a tumble dryer/washer dryer. Regardless, if people are using another source to help understand their laundry, like an app or their mum (although not in my case) or just quitting even trying to understand the labels, then the instructions are not really doing their job.

It is easy to bemoan the current symbols but finding a solution that works for most people in most circumstances, is undoubtedly incredibly difficult. This is where I am predictably going to advocate more user research on the matter since that is the sort of unsatisfactory way I like to end all conversations.

My next random research question will be on this theme but looking at whether people even know some instructions exist. 

References

1. Joni Browne, 'Random user research question #1: film ratings/ they may as well have let him watch The Exorcist'. https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/random-user-research-question-1-film-ratings-may-well-joni-browne/
2. Dress and Textile Specialists, 'Dating Collections Using Standardised Wash Codes On Garment Labelling': https://www.dressandtextilespecialists.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Wash-code-fact-sheet.pdf
3. Intertek, 'Intertek Care Labelling brochure', https://www.intertek.com/uploadedFiles/Intertek/Divisions/Consumer_Goods/Media/PDFs/Services/Low%20Res%20CompleteCareLabelling.pdf
4. UKFT,' Care Labelling Standards', https://www.care-labelling.co.uk/carelabellingstandards.html