Design Distractions at 34,000 Feet
I’m writing this halfway through a three-hour flight back to Manila.
I’m not a frequent flyer. If you exchange for rewards the miles in my account, it would only get you a free pen or, if you’re lucky, a printed face towel. If other countries can be reached by the old-school way like land bridges, I’ll do that instead of flying.
Do I have a phobia? I don’t think so.
Does the image of the plane break in half while mid-air then crashing down to the ground ever crossed my mind moments before take-off? Absolutely!
Am I screaming in fear for my dear life during those moments — that I would leave to your imagination.
That being said, our plane is, of course, experiencing some turbulence and as a defense mechanism, I looked for ways to distract myself. Since my anxiety-triggered diarrhea is off, I decided to look around and my eyes landed on this:
CABIN CREW: “The FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT sign is on, please refrain from standing up from your seats or going to the lavatory”
Since the one on the right means “FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT”, I’ve always thought that the symbol on the left means “DO NOT FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT” which I quickly realized to be negative if you’re trying to convey safety while 34,000 feet off the ground. I looked closely and found that it’s actually a lit-up cigarette with an X mark on the middle, which kind of means NO SMOKING. Why did I become confused? Was it because of the altitude? I don’t think so!
Finally, I found something here! Something enough to distract me.
PATTERNS AND PAIRS
A quick glance at the signs, we’ll notice that they are mostly made of one long rectangle (the cigarette and the belt ) with diagonal lines ( the X and the hands ) and are contrasted by a red X and a green right arrow.
Since both of them share the same elements, it made me think that they are a pair which quickly gave the impression that they are related. Just like these signs:
Because of the contrasting colors, it also made me think that the one is the opposite of the other. The left means something that you shouldn’t do, while the one on the right means something that you should.
Let’s look at the other signs around the plane:
They used the universal sign for “NO SMOKING” in the lavatory and in the guide which made it more confusing due to inconsistency.
Why not use the same sign? I believe it’s because of some manufacturing issues. The display space is also limited and the usual sign wouldn’t fit.
SUGGESTIONS
FOCUS — remove the no-smoking sign and just focus on the fasten your seatbelt sign. That way it would add weight to the importance of fastening the passengers’ seatbelt during turbulence. The no-smoking sign can be placed behind the seats.
ADD FAMILIARITY — if you look closely at the universal sign, aside from the circle that surrounds it, the other element that’s always present is the squiggly smoke lines.
Going back to our sign, we can easily change the diagonal smoke lines to squiggly lines. We can also replace the X mark with the much familiar “NOT ALLOWED” circle.
Initially, I would’ve suggested just putting the NO SMOKING in print for simplicity, but then I realized that this will be displayed inside a plane, where not everyone speaks English.
What do you think they should do? Are you confused with the signs too?
Thanks for reading! You reading this means that the plane landed safely. Haha!
UPDATE: We’re trying to change the internship landscape in the Philippines, here’s how we are doing it.
