Every time you leave your house and get into a car or walk, you stand a chance of suffering from an accident. The only physical things that create a barrier between safe and unsafe roads are the road signs. In fact, your life depends on whether the road signs are at the accurate spots and functioning aptly.
Psychology and sign design
But when you look at the signals consciously, you will find that people usually differentiate the ones that are important and the signs that are not so important. It is kind of crazy, but then, that is human psychology. All human minds have a general tendency to ignore and regard the signboards depending on the importance level of consciousness. So you should utilize the knowledge about human psychology and apply it to make interesting signboards designs.
Specific designs to prevent paying attention
Have you ever wondered why the stop signal is always red and not yellow, orange, or other random colors? Well, the answer again relates to human psychology.,
- Signs for things that are crucial should be shouting out loud and grabbing attention within a brief period. The red color is not for any Government regulation. The actual reason is the way human minds don’t focus on them. The standardized color will give you the message even at an unconscious level, like the brands that have been in the market for many years.
- If you pay more attention to the signs, you will get distracted from driving. As a result, you can be negligent on the road.
The sign designers study human psychology and the nature of reaction and response to colors for designing the appropriate street signs.
Signs that exist for ignorance
If you are driving across a road and see the sign of a hairpin bend a few meters ahead, chances are high that you will get to see the signs repetitively at shirt intervals until you reach the bend. It is like one sign indicates the presence of another sign on the line and so on.
These signs purely aim to prime our brain, even if you are not paying much attention to the signs. The process is called cognitive priming. The continuous repetition aims to increase your concentration level in the apprehension of the turn in a few meters.
Different researches show that the signs knock at the unconscious level of your mind instead of the conscious form. It is like automatic apprehension that there is another sign coming up and another until you reach the spot where you really need to focus while driving.
Sending alert signals
The purpose of installing the signboards is to ensure that the alert signals reach the brain at the right time. For instance, if you see a sign of school ahead, it will automatically send the signal to the brain, and you will be cautious and look out for the small kids on the road. This will also increase the eye movements and hearing abilities significantly to improve the focus on driving.
