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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.
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.
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
