01 Dec What Does This Sign Mean?
Ben Lane noticed this sign on a Swedish water taxi on a recent trip with the family. It was mounted on a wall enclosing an indoor seating area and was viewable from the outside deck. He could not figure out what it meant… and no one here can either. My guess is that the sign is referring to a meeting point. It shows multiple people, maybe parents and children, moving and then converging in a group (along with what appears to be the family robot-nanny, Rosie, on the right). It could be identifying a safe-zone to converge to in the event of trouble on the boat.
Any other thoughts on its meaning?
Here we have a sign that is confusing to at least one group of users (and a lot of the people that those users know). In this case, the water taxi sign-makers get kudos for going out of their way to create a pictorial sign in an attempt to bypass any language barriers for international tourists. Unfortunately, the graphic in the middle is very busy and confusing. This is a case that would benefit from the “less is more” principal; simple graphics and text would get the point across much more clearly and quickly. And, although text can also be confusing, most foreigners pick up at least a bit of the language when navigating a foreign land, (“Please”, “Thank you”, “Yes, we love IKEA!”).
So, if you were designing this sign, how might you have determined whether it sufficiently communicated its meaning? And, if you know where to get one of those Swedish robots, please forward the link…
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