Thoughts on Emotionally Intelligent Signage
Design Observer directed me to this interesting video slideshow on “emotionally intelligent signage.” The basic premise is that signs should be able to more effectively direct us by appealing to our emotions, either displaying empathy on the part of the sign-hangers or encouraging empathy among sign-readers. The presenter behind this, Dan Pink, has also offered some examples of emotionally intelligent road signage designed by 8th graders. (My favorite: “Slow down! You may hurt the future.”)
Some of the examples offered by Mr. Pink are amusing and clever. Of course, when he starts talking about the effectiveness of such signs in actually encouraging or altering behavior, he gets me thinking in researcher-mode. How would one fit this into existing models of communication theory? How would we define this sort of appeal such that we could test it? I haven’t devoted enough thought to the matter to figure it out, but I welcome those of you taking the “Social Psych” class this year to chime in.
My (somewhat pessimistic) guess is that there is a way we could define this and prove that it can be more effective in some situations, but that effectiveness would probably wear off if this technique were employed as a matter of course with most signage. Eventually, I think that attempts to display or encourage empathy would probably just end up looking more like ads and public service announcements, which we’ve learned to tune out pretty well already.
4 Comments so far
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Emotionally intelligent signage suffers the same problem that any read media does…the audience will inevitably read through the intended meaning and start playing with the message in uncontrollable ways. Including ignoring them. I’m sure there’s decades of media and communications study work that I’m ignorant of here, but I have my doubts about the efficacy of appealing directly to emotional concern.
What we need instead is something to skips right past signage and starts twiddling our lizard brains. Highways that play the favorite songs of our dead relatives. Treelined streets engineered to remind us the setting of our first awkward kiss. Manhole covers that joggle our feet and convince us that we’re dreaming of phantom limbs.
By Jacob on 11.28.07 2:59 pm
Unrelated to my previous comment, I think this also qualifies as emotionally intelligent signage.
By Jacob on 11.28.07 3:01 pm
And finally, I should say that “you may hurt the future” is a wonderfully succinct call for action. Lately I’ve been interesting in hurting ‘the future’, and so this sounds really positive to me in a horrible sense.
By Jacob on 11.28.07 3:04 pm
I’m not sure any of these are “emotionally intelligent” so much as more specific to the environment they are in than other, similar signs we’ve all seen. Take out “Relax” in the first example, and you have “this line moves really quickly”–information that would probably have the same effect on public behavior as the more informally toned “Relax…” (Pink doesn’t mention the tone as possibly reassuring visitors as well.)
Same goes for the other examples, although I disagree with his thinking that the “Be Nice Or Leave” sign would actually encourage people to be nice. The tone is actually aggressive, and the speaker presumes I would act otherwise while waiting for a table in their restaurant, perhaps a reasonable assumption if that sign is the first thing I see when entering.
By Diego on 11.29.07 5:02 pm
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