|||

We could be zeroes

Pop quiz

Take a minute to think about what’s happening here. These are awfully strange hours for a store. Why do you think they did this?

A. They did it for the lulz B. They always show up late to open up the store C. Time is an illusion, man

Now if you’ve ever worked retail, another answer might have come to you right away:

D. Because they ran out of zeros

I believe D) is the most likely answer, and hey, it could also be E) all of the above. At any rate, it’s a creative solution to a technical issue.

Could be a Canary

However, I believe this is technically a Sign of Bad Design. I could see a scenario like this coming up in the software world:

Hey dude, the engineers don’t have time to build the zeroes for the open sign. Could you finagle a solution using content?”

Which is the very definition of a Canary.

Call me nothing but principled

Now, don’t get me wrong, the approach this sign takes is clever. That’s why I took a picture of it. But unless the store actually opens at 12:12pm, it’s a lie. Even worse, someone could take this sign literally and hope to sneak in a 6 minute errand at 7:01pm (though if this is you, shame on you) only to find a locked door.

This sign is funny, but in principle, it is the wrong solution to a content design problem.


More Signs of Bad Design

Up next Content design vs visual design Turn around, bright eyes
Latest posts The three sees of content design The definitive post on whether chatGPT will take your job A Smallish Book about content design How to make Confluence less horrible I am a writer designer The new clothes fallacy Work is like a hill Badge of dishonor Ceci n'est pas un poubelle This sign is a crime Beware the lure of consistency Do not water Never, ever use the term microcopy You need three things to design content Permanently fixed Assembly instructions for a side table Extraneous labels, ignored conventions The double diamond model Don't have an emergency here Product tours that don't suck Quickly edit text on the web How content designers can get the most out user interviews Let's be reasonable How to derisk trial experiences Turn around, bright eyes We could be zeroes Content design vs visual design The recipe approach to writing labels Sorry no pizza 6 truths for first-time public speakers Do not enter, exit only