Comments on: Thoughts on Emotionally Intelligent Signage

By: Diego

Diego — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 21:02:28 +0000

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: Jacob

Jacob — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:04:50 +0000

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

Jacob — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:01:17 +0000

Unrelated to my previous comment, I think this also qualifies as emotionally intelligent signage.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 18:59:40 +0000

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.