The accidental brilliance of makeshift signs | Kate Canales
1Digest
This podcast features designer Kate Canales, who shares her fascination with handmade signs as a form of ingenious human problem-solving. She has collected hundreds of photos of these signs, which often appear in everyday situations to provide extra instructions or clarify confusing designs. Canales initially viewed these signs as indicators of bad design but now sees them as creative solutions and "love letters from strangers." She discusses examples ranging from simple "push" signs on doors to more complex instructions for over-designed machines. Her collection highlights recurring issues with point-of-sale machines and public bathrooms, where handwritten notes often make complex systems usable. Ultimately, Canales finds reassurance in these signs, viewing them as evidence of our interconnectedness and the human desire to help others navigate the world, even in imperfectly designed environments.
Outlines
The Ingenuity of Handmade Signs
Designer Kate Canales introduces her fascination with handmade signs, viewing them as ingenious human solutions to everyday design challenges. She shares her superpower of noticing these signs, which often provide crucial instructions and reveal human creativity in navigating designed environments.
Everyday Instructions and Problem-Solving
Canales delves into various examples of improvised signage, from simple door instructions to signs clarifying confusing objects. She discusses her anthropological obsession with these everyday instructions, noting recurring themes in areas like point-of-sale machines and public bathrooms, where handwritten notes often make complex designs usable.
Over-Designed Systems and Human Connection
The podcast explores how over-designed machines can become unclear without added signs, contrasting with the initial mission to document bad design. Canales shifts to appreciating ingenious human problem-solving, viewing signs as "love letters from strangers" that reveal our shared humanity and interconnectedness.
Keywords
Handmade Signs
Improvised, often non-professional signs created by individuals to provide instructions or clarification in everyday situations. They highlight human ingenuity and the need for clear communication beyond standard design.
Design Anthropology
The study of human behavior and culture in relation to designed objects and environments. It examines how people interact with and adapt designed systems, often revealing flaws or areas needing improvement.
User Experience (UX)
The overall experience of a person using a product or service, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use. Handmade signs often emerge to fix UX issues in poorly designed interfaces or systems.
Human Ingenuity
The quality of being clever, original, and inventive. This is demonstrated by individuals creating practical solutions, like handmade signs, to overcome design challenges and facilitate everyday tasks.
Everyday Instructions
Guidance provided in common situations to help people perform tasks or navigate environments. These can range from simple labels to complex directions, often born out of necessity.
Q&A
What is Kate Canales's "design superpower"?
Kate Canales's design superpower is "noticing." She is constantly observing how people interact with the designed world and has a particular fascination with the handmade signs people create to help each other.
Why does Kate Canales collect photos of handmade signs?
She collects them to document examples of everyday instructions and human problem-solving. Initially seeing them as examples of bad design, she now views them as ingenious solutions and "love letters from strangers."
What common themes emerge from Kate Canales's collection of signs?
Recurring themes include difficulties with point-of-sale credit card machines and challenges in public bathrooms. These areas frequently require extra, often handwritten, instructions due to design complexities or user confusion.
How does Kate Canales view handmade signs in the context of technology?
Despite technological advancements, she sees these signs as evidence that humans still need each other in the real world to accomplish basic tasks, highlighting a fundamental aspect of human connection and support.
Show Notes
What happens when the design of everyday things misses the mark? People fill in the blanks. Designer Kate Canales has spent more than 20 years photographing the handmade, improvised signs that appear when the original falls short. From perplexing bathroom directions to our struggles with doors and point-of-sale machines, her photos capture something technology can't replace: our instinct to look out for each other and leave a few instructions behind.
If you've got a photo you've taken of a makeshift sign like the ones Kate discusses in her talk, she'd would love to see it! Please visit www.thereifixedit.design to learn more.
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