Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

One indication of a bad design are lots of instructions on how to do a simple task.

I live in Reston, Virginia. We have an (somewhat or other) urban core or something called the Reston Town Center. It has parking garages. The management company, to the consternation or many locals, has decided to charge for parking in all the parking garages.

Paid parking garages have existed in the US for decades. I thought the companies had it all figured out. I was wrong.

I came into the Reston Town Center as I usually do on a Saturday morning to drink coffee, view the Internet, and write some blog posts. I was confronted with a dozen signs instructing me how to park my car.

Parking a car is pretty simple. People have been parking cars since cars were invented over a hundred years ago. Yes, some people park poorly, but the vast majority of the time the vast majority of people park their cars adequately.

Question: Why do I need a dozen signs telling me how to park my car?

Answer: Bad design.

One of the best little books on design I have ever read is that by Don Norman. One of his chapters discusses how some designs are so bad that the implementers have to put signs everywhere telling users how to do something simple. Examples include doors that have instructions on how to open them and faucets that have instructions on how to make water flow.

Well, let’s add paid parking at the Reston Town Center. We need a dozen signs so we know how to park a car.