Information design:
professional vs amateur
[You're reading part 1 (of 2). Read part 2.]
We’ve got a great team of problem solvers here at Oxide, but I’ll be the first to admit we don’t have an answer to every situation. Also, while they taught me in high school to always write from a thesis statement, in this case I’m presenting an observation and hoping that you will help me discover the answers.
I encountered a situation recently that rattled my belief in the power of good information design. In the foyer of a local big-box hardware store, there’s a set of doors through which you’re to enter and a set through which you exit. On the inside of the entrance doors there are three different messages splashed in red and white across the glass in vinyl lettering:
1. “NO EXIT”
2. “DO NOT ENTER”
3. “EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY”
Even if you can’t read (the messages are also shown in Spanish), the shocking red covering more than fifty percent of the glass should be enough to steer you away. It just looks dangerous. It most certainly solves the problem of clearly indicating to viewers that they are not to exit via these doors. (I’d call it a perfect solution, but I actually would have been inclined to say it was a little over-designed: surely just one or two of those statements would have worked — three is simply overkill.)
Apparently, my instincts (and OCD desire for everything to be clear, tidy, and consistent) were wrong in this case. One has to assume that people were still leaving the building through that door, because on the day I saw it there was a handwritten sign taped up on the glass. It contained a more dire warning not to use these doors:
PLEASE DO NOT
EXIT THESE DOORS
USE THE DOORS
BEHIND YOU!!
NOT AN EXIT!
THANKS
It seems far-fetched to imagine any modern big-box employee taking the time to make this sign unless instructed to do so by a manager who believed that a problem was afoot. So the only safe assumption to make is that a measurable amount of people were ignoring the information design on these doors and using them as an exit despite the explicit messages. The whole thing shook me to the core and left me with so many unanswered questions:
What is it about the professional information design on this door that didn’t work effectively?
Was it something about this particular solution that failed, or is there something inherent about hand-written notes that makes our brains prick up and take notice?
Will scraps of paper with scrawled notes taped on things always be more effective than intentional, well thought out signage design?
Can the unexpected and (unintentionally) guerilla-like tactics of the amateurs always win out over the professional information designers?
Did they tape that note up even though there wasn’t ever a problem, and I’m worrying about it for no reason?
Please share your thoughts and/or similar experiences. Let’s figure this thing out.
Note: for more information, see the follow-up post.
What do the rest of the graphics for the store look like? Is the red a common colour for them? If that is the case, then it could be that for some users, those warnings are just more signs and not anything worth really looking at.
Or maybe it’s not the design that’s failing, but the users? Perhaps a certain number of users see & understand the warnings, but simply don’t care to use the proper exit. I’m not certain that good design can always overcome an enlarged sense of entitlement/apathy/arrogance/etc.
Great observation Drew. My first thought is that we are so used to seeing the same signage on the same doors at every box store that often times we don’t even read them anymore. We’re constantly over stimulated with professional signage that it no longer does what it’s supposed to. At that point it’s just paint on the wall.
I find myself noticing the same thing with website design. When I fill out a form and click submit and it doesn’t work I have 2-3 places I look to for error messages (top of the form, bottom of the form and to the right side of each text box). Usually those are in a different color, bold, etc. Recently I filled in a form and when I failed to enter my phone number in the proper format (which they failed to share with me beforehand) the notation for my error was a small red asterisk placed before the field label. In this case it was very poor design but it was different and made me stop and figure out what I had done wrong.
In both cases I have been condidtioned to act in a certain way and the only way make me stop and process what I’m looking at is to put something completely out of context into the mix. Looking at it another way if those windows were covered with hand written signs saying do not enter it would likely be the one professionally developed sign that I would pay attention to.
There’s my two cents…
I agree with Shane. And I wonder if it’s really a question of ‘Expected vs. Unexpected’ rather than ‘Professional vs. Amateur’.
Expected: I want to get out. OK, here’s a door. It has the ‘normal’ warnings. That just means they want me to go out the ‘normal’ exit because (1) they don’t want me to see the smoke-break area or (2) they want to make one final sales-pitch with some exit-door product-placement. Either way, they wouldn’t put a door here if it were really dangerous.
Unexpected: Wait, what’s this? A crappy hand-written note? Well, maybe it’s not just the normal ‘fake’ warnings. Somebody took the time to put a note here (despite it being an obvious eye-sore) so maybe there’s a rhino or booby trap out this door…
Judging by the Antique Olive Black looking font – I assume this is Lowe’s.
Phil’s cornered it – it’s a DOOR. So technically, it is an exit. When I want out of a building, I will typically use a door. Unless I’m in a Saloon, where the front window is an equally acceptable option.
Store-manufactured and integrated signage on a perfectly functioning door will be ignored unless there’s a reasonable barrier. Look at Menard’s – they have a turnstyle on the entry area so that you CAN’T go back out through the entry doors without hopping a fence or crawling under the turnstyle. Note: not handwritten notes on Menard’s entry doors.
Also, I find that doors with “Emergency Exit Only” on them won’t get used if they are the “alarm will sound” doors.
All in all, the “please don’t use me” doors get used and used, despite their feeble resistance.
Design the interface and experience properly in order get achieve the desired results.
A door is a door. Sure, their professional signage can suggest which one I should use, but that’s all it really is. A suggestion. A “Please, kind Sir, use the other door.” A corporate decision based not on which door is closer to my car so I can minimize the freezing of my face, but based on pedestrian traffic flow surveys likely conducted in lovely June weather.
Two things would stop me in my tracks: a handwritten sign, or a sign stating that “Alarm Will Sound.” The former means there might be dubious ruffians dressed as employees waiting to treat me like a patron at Cheaters Bar if I dare to ignore the warning. The latter means “This isn’t a suggestion, chump, its a command. DO NOT USE.” Either way, I take heed.
I think this is largely a function of “that sign doesn’t really apply to me” logic. People know they’re not supposed to use the door, but if it’s closer to the car and they’ve got kids in tow (or heavy packages or whatever), it’s just so much EASIER to do what you’re not supposed to.
I agree with Tom. The handwritten sign (while not necessarily indicating store ruffians) does indicate some serious intent, and the “alarm will sound” warning would offer the potential for making the entire store look at you and think you’re a complete idiot who can’t follow a simple direction (stated multiple times).
The design “flaw” if you want to call it that is not offering the proper stick for not following directions.
hi! This winter I’ve seen a lot of homemade signs that seem to contradict the “real” signs around them. A good number have been on or near doors, where ice or snow has led to a temporary detour – going in through the out door for instance. Of course the problem is that once whatever situation is dealt with people are used to ignoring the beautiful and clear signs and keep going the revised route.
I wonder if part of the problem you’ve encountered is that the permanent, clear signs are so permanent that sometimes they become inaccurate. At which point the rest of us learn to question all permanent signs.
Just thoughts. Sorry about the horrid punctuation.
First question — what happens if people do exit thru the entry? What’s the worst thing that could happen??? Probably not much at all. Looks like a issue of someone wants to be in charge and you had darn well better do what they say. The best solution would be to watch how the people move about the store, and then design the entry & exits to accommodate…. human nature.
Interesting and enlightening comments. I should note that in this case, it’s somewhat difficult to tell why one shouldn’t exit via these particular doors. Sure, they’re labeled as such (five different ways now), but there’s still no visible reason to any typical, rational person why they shouldn’t be allowed to go back out these doors. You enter through them, so there’s nothing out there that you haven’t already seen. I’m inclined to believe that people in this store are indeed following Justin’s “entitlement/apathy/arrogance” model.
Having thought further about it, I can only figure out one basic reason why the store wouldn’t want you exiting via these doors. The foyer to this store is so poorly designed that the entrance doors are hidden in a little alcove where, if you’re entering, you can’t always see the doors until you’re about to open them. I’m guessing they’ve sometimes had troubles where someone exited via the “wrong” doors, tossed them open Hulkamania-style, and smashed someone’s nose who was trying to enter from the outside.
None of that makes a handwritten note taped over three warnings a better design solution. But I am guessing these doors can’t be alarmed since they are opened all the time by people entering, and may not be allowed to have a one-way turnstile because of fire code. Is there a better solution that exists?
I’m gonna take the shoplifting angle. Does this store have anti-theft sensors at the exit (and perhaps not at the entrance)? My guess is that there is a designed flow of transit through the building to minimize theft and/or Hulkamania nose-smashing. It guarantees that everyone has passed a friendly sales associate, purchased their items, and did not hide a rake on the undercarriage of their cart. If someone exits through the incorrect doors, they clearly have done so through intention. If this sign appeared only since the Holiday season (peak shoplifting times), I’m guessing this might have something to do with it.
Perhaps we’re trying to restrict traffic too much. At -5 degrees outside, I think it’s fair to believe that most people try to park closest to the entrance and take the path of least resistance back to their car. Instead of asking visitors to go the long way around, maybe the best designer would’ve said “Hmmm…we should get another set of anti-theft sensors over here and let the door swing both ways.”
Wal-Mart visitors get to choose which side of the building they enter and exit. Even the exit door itself automatically opens for blind people (and the apathetic).
I went back and grabbed some more photos to try and shed some additional light on the matter. I’ve put them in a new post called Information Design: professional vs amateur (part 2).