Tags
adaptive living tools, cricketdiane, cricketdiane visual languages, design, intelligent design, new designs, tools for independent living, tools for people with disabilities, visual identifiers, visual solutions
Evolution of designs to visually convey “OUT” that would be appropriate for me to know what they mean –
I had been making a set of “HERE” stickers in an array of colors with this being a secondary design made toward the end of the series –
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I had designed this sticker above to say “Door” after making the Here stickers believing that it would be handy to have some things visually to indicate the way out and where the door is – although I do that in some other ways as well. But, after making this one, I realized it probably wasn’t something I could use to find the door, even though it might be handy placed on a door generally to know it was what it is.
Therefore, I decided that the designs for “out” would be better served by a triangle and its arrow by nature pointing to the out direction, and then starting with stickers – later making a number of wall decals to match the designs – I started the design series of visual identifiers that I could use – that would tell me the way out is found here or along this pathway.
That yielded these, in the order of their designs being created on the zazzle store using its editor and my images in its libraries.
– cricketdiane
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The first one above, would likely tell me and probably nobody else that the way out is this way – and visually, as much as it would do that for me – I wanted designs that both people with my disabilities from brain injury, stroke and ptsd – could use them as well as those with more “normal” functioning like family members, and caregivers.
That yielded the next one which also, I could use – in fact, it probably serves my needs the best, but my daughter didn’t understand what it could mean and to her it looked like “gobbledy-gook” – whatever that is. It apparently did not convey to her – “go out this way, go out here, or this is the door this way” as it does for me. I do like it the best though, out of all of them that I designed last night and today.
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On the one above, which my daughter also didn’t like worth a damn – the L > tells me to look to my right upon going through the door. In this case as others, the “L” stands for “LOOK” and the arrow in the direction of it, but I realized others might interpret that as turn left but the arrow would face right in disagreement with it based on their likely interpretation of an L being in the design at all.
It is hard to consider what people with more left-brain interpretations would first think to conceptualize elements. Daughter said this one made no sense to her either but I would find it simple to use because it fits with what I know to mean “a doorway” by )] ([ and the double crossing lines in the middle that tells me it is likely to be closed by a door which can be opened, (indicated by the fact that the lines to each side have an open space before the “doorframe” on either side.)
It isn’t hard to see that the “O” is the person intending to go through it but apparently it does not read that way to her. And, the “L <” tells me to look to my right immediately upon coming through the door for something of importance or value to me there. In the case of our bathroom, if this sticker were on the inside beside the door frame, I would likely look to my right upon coming out of it which would show me the kitchen area that sits to the right shortly after leaving that room.
I don’t really know why it doesn’t mean that to my daughter, but if it doesn’t – then it may very well not mean that to others. So I designed another one –
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I thought for sure that the design above would do it – I added two “O” figures for standing in my own feet for the person symbol and then added an arrow – at least a verbal oriented left-brained person and anyone else could follow that, including me (although the arrow is not as helpful to me as someone might think.) And, I included the “doorway” as a simplified figure of two parentheses along with a circular indication of the directions that could be found there once the door had been traversed.
Nope, she thought it was not helpful either. Oh well. She doesn’t have to use it (my daughter) – but still, maybe I could find some better ways to say it visually, so I did some more –
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Thinking that maybe there was not enough information in it to suit people like my daughter, I added figures that more resembled people to indicate that more than one person could use the door, that anybodys could use the door and possibly they could all go use the damn door by coming along that way to do it – which yielded this –
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Well, she wasn’t impressed. I’m beginning to think this is not the job for me – aside from the fact that I do have a lot of knowledge from needing these kinds of tools and using them to help myself for many years by using them. But surely “regular” people like my daughter are not going to be this difficult to get along with for me to design things that can be used by both of us and mean something nearly the same for both of us.
Maybe that is part of the problem, that in my visual languages I can say all kinds of things and interpret all kinds of things from verbal relationships that others made into visual languages, but to those who are essentially trained by our nation of schooling to be verbal oriented – it simply does not make any sense.
Oh well, I don’t know what to do about that. As I said, they don’t have to use the tools, where I very nearly must use them effectively in order to enjoy the daily functioning levels of anything close to a normally functioning person. So, maybe it doesn’t matter – they can learn to use them and accommodate my needs to have these visual mnemonics available in a way that I can understand them in my visual languages.
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The one above came next with its additional colors and indicators. I went back to the single circle “O” to indicate the being needing to go “out” and arrows to indicate the relationship with the pathway to and through the door – also indicated by two parenthesis but this time in purple – )( – with the pathway choices once through the door indicated in green to say “going” this way < – – – > or the other way immediately after clearing the doorway.
But no, this one didn’t work for both of us either, although I certainly can use it effectively, especially for some exits which have steps, porch or walkway directly on the other side of the door, or as our front door does – goes to a sidewalk that can be then traversed in either direction down the street. Those would come in handy for that doorway and any like it, as well as for a number of internal spaces that I’ve seen from the Rockefeller Center to hospitals and malls with their maze of hallways.
The green on either side indicates “to go this way” or “by going this way” and by having them on either side, it is a strong indicator of action once the need arises to go there – particularly important with things like doorways to the “OUT” place. When I get lost inside a place, it is the first thing I want to know how to do in order to find a place that I can recognize and that I “know” where it is possible for me to re-group and get my bearings again.
This would be a handy sticker or signage for me to use to do that. But, not for people like my daughter to use probably. I’m not sure, but it was certainly more effective to her than a number of the earlier designs.
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So, I made this one –
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The design above is very effective and it has the least bit of visual information in it to do it – which is a plus. I like the colors. It is very visual and eye-catching which in an event or environment where there is a lot going on and a multitude of other visual information, distractions and motion in particular, this exit / door / out symbol sign decal could be used easily.
It would be easy to locate it in the environment because of its high contrast colors and elements. It would be simple enough to read and know what it means. As well as those things, I like it because its visual message is direct and fairly easy to read.
I could probably find a door or pathway to the exit door or to internal spaces in an environment using the sticker above, (and I also made accompanying wall decals of the same symbols for the most part but the corners of the triangles aren’t rounded off on the decals because that shape wasn’t on their list at zazzle.)
The design above simply did inspire the next one so I went ahead and made it to see what it would look like –
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A place that explains a bit about the flexibility and plasticity of the brain to recover through many years post brain injury. It can be “re-wired” to use existing systems and circuits that are less harmed or unharmed to make up some of the difference, but many things can also be accomplished with that plus adaptive living tools, accommodations, changes in approaches to things and by compensating strategies.
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Brain_injury:Recovery
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