I decided to check out three essay but was drawn to one in particular. The “Information Design & the Placebo Effect” article was pretty funny and pretty sad. This particular essay revealed that most of the buttons utilized in New York City to permit on to receive a cross walk sign to safely cross the street, don’t in fact work. On top of that, most haven’t worked in fifteen years. That’s crazy!
It brings into question, a great question: Is designing that button, instead of not having anything available at all, satiating some desire of ours to push something to feel like we have taken action instead of just waiting? Is that smart design? I think so. Up until reading the essay, I always figured that every cross walk button worked and every ‘close door’ button in an elevator was functioning…perhaps a bit slowly but still functioning.
After reading the essay, I’m a little upset I was informed of this flaw. I guess I could chop this up to NYC’s lack of care and go back to believing that they work everywhere else. It still makes you think about whether or not these design elements are relevant and honest.