GordonGR07

Information Design ~ Day 7 After some number jockeying, I believe the reading assignment number once again is consistent to the days class number – all the stars are aligned and the world is right again! Coincidently, this day’s reading deals with “trusted” things that may be fraudulent… so reader beware.

Bethany Armstrong has given has given her class a reprint of a short yet poignant rant to review. In the excerpt from Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design, author Michael Bierut gives us his wit and insight on the “gullibility” of a trusting society. His example of 2,500 intentionally installed non-working crosswalk buttons on New York City’s light poles is frightening to consider. Fake “close door” elevator buttons and bogus security system facades go against all that we have been taught as a virtuous culture.

Now, I think we are all innately trust worthy. We know who we are … inside. Or at least I know who I am inside. So, in turn I then naturally project my core values and ethics on those around me as being the universally accepted norm. We’re all basically the same and want everything to be just swell… right? This concentric circle of assumption is repeated over and over by each and every one of us. We all think that our “norm” is the correct norm. We search out and find like minded people to hang with and share in the comfort of like mindedness. All of these circles of “individuals” swirling around, making up the basis of our society – dare say, humanity. And at the middle of all of this is this innate trust thing. Without it society is lost. So we cling to it. Our strength is our weakness. Innocent until proven guilty is our legal basis. Fool me once shame on me, fool me twice – shame on you is our practice.

So- how do all of these psychological proliferations of mine come in to relevance with today’s reading and class content? Well, I think we all just want to believe. Believe until being burned, and then burned again a few more times. Bierut sights several examples in his essay on the innocence of trust within our society and the ease in which we as a people are swayed and duped. His quick, sharp observations immediately expose everyone’s natural desire to coexist in a cohesive society. Now lop on information design. Hugh? In the context of today’s lesson, one could leap to the conclusion that people want to believe what they see - especially if it is packaged and delivered in a believable form. From the placebo button on a traffic pole to the AGENDA in a chart – people, at first glance will unconsciously want to take it at face value. Over time and with experience, these same viewers may grow weary of empty promises and unfulfilled expectations.

So maybe it should be designer beware – “smoke and mirrors” will only work for so long. Information Design at its core is a trust – delivering communications from one person to another.