People are constantly being influenced by signs and social cues around them, sometimes without even realising it. We were tasked to play with the familiar formats of them and create something a bit more interesting.

Initial Research

We started by looking at existing signs, what each shape and colour meant. We thought this could be interesting to change up, to confuse people. For example, if people see a red, circular sign, their initial reaction is to stop, or not enter, but what if it said to go that way. We then began experimenting with different signs to see what caught more peoples attention, but most people were inclined to just ignore the signs and walk on past. This is probably due to the fact that people are so used to seeing signs every day, so we decided not to do a standard sign and instead create something more physical.

Initial ideas

We initially started playing about with interactive ideas, such as the floor is lava, or people following things, as we found the natural want for humans to follow things and revert back to a childhood state quite interesting,  however this has been done before and we wanted to create an idea which was a bit more original. We did like the playful nature of those ideas and wanted to incorporate humour or a playfulness into our final design. We then began to look at the signs which already exist and are around us daily, signs that no one even thinks twice about and tried to think up ways to make them more noticeable. We then began experimenting with this and creating 3d figures which related to the signs.

Development

Before going ahead with our idea, we thought it was best to test it. We created a model of what we thought the final product could be then placed it in the corridor. We then observed people walking past it to see their reaction and collected data accordingly. From doing this, the data suggested we should make the figures bigger and create something to make it a bit more obvious as to what the purpose of them was, as some people didn’t quite get it. We also decided we should paint them to make them look a bit nicer and fit in with the environment.

Final Design

To try and get rid of the confusion, we created signs, which linked to the figure. The signs were based on standard signage, which is already in use, but missing the figure. The 3D figures we made were all in some way defying the sign, or causing the problem, as if they had escaped from the sign and were rebelling. We then created different figures out of cardboard, we spray painted them white, to fit in with the building, but then outlined them in black so they wouldn’t completely blend in and still be somewhat noticeable. We then placed them about a corridor in the building and watched peoples responses

Conclusion

To conclude, I believe our project was an overall successful in capturing the attention of people. We aimed to get people more aware of their surroundings, and these signs definitely did that. People had a very good response and found them quite amusing. Their positioning around the corridor also caused people to follow an unusual path, trying to see all of them, as opposed to walking in a straight line.