I was surprised to find that it was easy to find moderately bad signs, but difficult to find really terrible examples of the type Katherine had shown us in class. Most of mine were less examples of bad signage than bad branding.
But then I hit the jackpot:
I have a car, and it is my misfortune to sometimes have to drive around New York. And the worst part of it, by far is parking. When there is traffic building up behind you, and a miracle space appears in the row by the curb, you are often faced with a sign like the one above. It takes about fifty seconds to figure it out, by which time you have a line of six taxis blaring in chorus behind you.
The key piece of information you want to know is time-based: can I park here NOW? (And secondarily, how long can I stay parked before I get in trouble?)
I redesigned the parking signs as a series of 24-hour clock faces. Midnight is at the top, noon at the bottom, and each pie wedge represents a swath of time where different rules are in effect. You simply need to find your day (which will always appear in order, accounting for overlapping days), then find your current time on the clock. Bingo.
It’s still visually busy, and I think now the text elements need to be larger, but I don’t think the information can be condensed any further.
Here’s the whole presentation: