Visual Communication Quarterly, cilt.32, sa.3, ss.208-217, 2025 (ESCI)
This study explores the universal characteristics of pictograms and evaluates the secondary meanings they can convey to urban rail system users by focusing on three different metropolitan cities. Autoethnography is used as a research method; the personal notes of the researcher during her presence in these cities, the pictures she took, the comments she later made on these short writings and photographs, and her personal observations and experiences were used in knowledge production process. As a result of the research, it was observed that in addition to the primary target of pictograms, they convey information about the culture of the city in which they are used, and some of the pictograms may lead to different local and subjective interpretations.