S05 - Session O3 - What means a half sun? - Understandability of plant care symbols

Authors: Anne-Katrin Kleih *, Mira Lehberger, Kai Sparke

Successful ornamental plant care is important for consumer satisfaction. Producers or retailers provide assistance by giving care instructions in form of symbols printed on care labels. To save space and to enable the usage of these care symbols across national borders, the care instructions are very brief. How well are these plant care symbols understood by consumers? And which factors influence the understandability? To answer these questions two studies are planned. The first is an online survey with 1000 participants, which tests with objective and subjective measures the understandability of selected conventional plant care symbols regarding location, watering, and temperature. Furthermore, the survey investigates the importance of plant care instructions for the purchase decision. The second is an online survey combined with online eye-tracking with 300 participants, which compares understandability, preference, and visual attention of conventional plant care symbols with newly developed and more detailed plant care symbols using the example of poinsettia. The eye-tracking reveals, which parts of the plant care symbols receive more (visual) importance. The expected result is a fairly good understandability of conventional plant care symbols. However, the understandability may be dependent on experience with plant care. Furthermore, we expect better understandability and preference of the new plant care symbols. Relevant for producers and retailers is the question of how to better introduce inexperienced consumers to plant care and which other formats may be beneficial for the future.