Design: signs

Self-tutoring about the messages we receive and observe: the tutor discusses their clarity.

Lifetimes ago a friend of mine pointed out that people often send a message very strongly, but you can’t tell what they mean. An obvious example was a flashy car that didn’t go fast. Another was someone who advertised an item for sale, but refused to sell it, even for the price they said they wanted.

Such ideas were hard to believe when I was a kid, but they do happen, as well as ones even more ironic. It becomes hard to navigate unless you use psychology, which no stated message will provide. The upshot: sometimes it takes experience – even to read a sign!(?)

One idea that I’ve noticed around the past 20 years, with growing frequency, is the fact that many things people “want” you to find are actually hidden. In such cases, directions far away from it will refer to the place, but when you get there, it’s either not labeled, or labeled so subtly that you need to already know it’s there to even notice its label. I practically refused to believe the situation at first, but it happens more and more often. I’ve come up with two possible explanations:

1: The person in charge of denoting the place wasn’t thinking. They know where it is, so don’t realize the need for an obvious label of it. Perhaps this is one reason why design – even at a very basic level – is a thing.

2: They want to be able to say they’ve provided said place, but don’t want a lot of people to use it. Hence, hide it in plain sight.