Trained Person Only

Some standard 13Amp sockets... The same as that used in homes by adults, even children, up and down the county day after day, but this one is to be used by a "Trained Person Only".....

Royal Reservation

On a winter visit to the Queen's Sandringham Estate in Norfolk we called in to the visitor centre for a family Sunday lunch.

Much to our amusement the neighbouring table had been reserved for King. In our waterproofs and wellies we suddenly felt a tad under dressed.....

Bangers and Mash Up

Here’s the poster from my local Sainsburys.

It's what I shall call a “calco”, a mis-calculation, the numerical equivalent of “typo.”

Now £3.79. Was £4.29. Save 70p.

Actually that should be save 50p.

Or should it? All we can tell is that these numbers are not consistent with each other, and so any one could be wrong. Interestingly there’s no way of knowing on the face of it which of the numbers is wrong…might just need to buy some sausages and mash to find out.

But all is not lost. If we want to assume that only one of the three numbers is wrong, then by means of mathematical deduction, we can go as far to say that we would save 50p or 70p.

The fact that this error found its way on to the shop floor of a national chain is no mean feat. The poster will have been through some design, create, print, and probably approval process. Then distributed to stores and then shop floor and no one noticed this simplest of errors. Especially when you consider that the primary objective of the poster would appear to be to make a specifically numerical point.

Also makes me think that perhaps we need a “maths-checker”, the numerical equivalent to a spell checker. It would identify the numbers in prose and check for some sort of mathematical relationship.

Library Liability

Since 1997 the British Library has been based at these premises, next to St. Pancras Station in London.  Holding over 150 million items held for posterity and research, and with a full programme of exhibitions, the design of the building courted significant controversy - it's really polarises opinion.  I should know I worked there....

That design has bring unique foibles necessitating some unique signage.   Here are the steps leading up to the front entrance.  It's been necessary have a sign for each of the steps.  Given the regular exhibitions here, this might just qualify as an installation.....

Please Please Be Good

Please please be good, you know that you should.  So many signs are implicitly negative rather than positive.  That’s often due to the desire to discourage specific activity.  It can be more positive and  engaging to instead encourage the desired activity.   So please be good rather than don’t be bad.

A lovely example here of a positive request basically “Please keep on the paths”,  rather than the so much more common negative request to “Please keep off the grass”.

That has a deeper impact than we might first think.  We have inbuilt trouble with thinking the reverse.   A good example is "do not think of a blue duck".  You can't help but envisage the duck.  By the same logic negative instructions start the thinking about the negative situation rather than the positive.

Welcome

Welcome

This is a home for all those wonderfully odd  instructional, guidance and informational signs that we see about....especially where they are curious or confusing.

I remain amazed at how many of these signs that I've come across, often not fully fit for purpose in some way which creates the opportunity for unnecessary confusion.  That simply makes people think more than they need to, and especially when that thinking is an extra barrier of time and effort to some call to action.

Some make us smile, even laugh, and other can be downright curious and odd, and sometimes even a tad annoying or frustrating.  It's also great to find good ones, so there's some of those too.

So....Sign + Sense + Ability.... something about the ability to make signs make most sense.....

Enjoy.

Paul

Paul Askew

paul.askew@signsenseability.org.uk