How New Technologies Could Change Road Signage in the Future
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
David Casacuberta The Web as Utopia Architecture journals Big data How New Technologies Creative process Critical design Could Change Road Signage Cultural analytics Curricular revision Digital signage in the Future Digital publishing Driver assistance systems Reliance on new technologies for road transport is increasing, Digital revolution both on the road and in the car. While some may still need to Global positioning system be perfected, several current devices are presented to show Domus Road signage how they can clearly be of help to drivers. The influence of new technologies on road signage is also examined, in the light Editorial design of a hypothesis that illustrates how road signs could evolve if designers took such technologies as their starting point. Graphic design Information design Information visualisation Innovation Intangible support Over the last decade the introduction of new tech- what the driver had achieved with a little rental car Interaction Joan Zalacain nologies into road transport has increased dramati- and no previous experience driving in snow, but the Interaction design cally. Their presence continues to grow, both on question was why? Why had the driver decided to Internet “There will come a point roads and in cars, improving safety and aiding driv- continue all the way to the top when the signs further ers to have smooth and comfortable journeys. They down the road advised against it? The answer he gave (In)visible design when essential and suggest routes, help avoid traffic and warn of pos- was ‘I just followed the GPS!’ Disregarding all the ad- Multi-script sible hazards miles ahead. Broadly speaking, drivers vice in the form of traffic signs displayed outside his Multiculturalism trustworthy information for have welcomed the help offered by new technologies, vehicle, the only source of information he had cho- although some may have been a little too dependent, sen to rely on was the small GPS screen inside his car. Multidisciplinarity drivers will be transferred as proven by the following example. Multilingualism from roads to cars” Last winter I was travelling around the Lake District in northern England. It had been snowing Excessive Reliance on GPS? Narrative artifact Joan Zalacain is a designer with ten years’ experience in for some days and there was some disruption on Events such as the one described are becoming Neuromarketing maps, way-finding and graphic design. He likes to bring the roads. One of the roads closed was a mountain more and more common. There are dozens of news clarity to what some call our era of information obesity. pass on my planned route. Although it was clearly reports about drivers plunging into rivers and lakes, Paper His design approach aims to improve user experience by signposted as closed, I decided to drive through it or almost driving off cliffs. Only recently a driver Perception simplifying processes and delivering information in an effective and seamless manner. after being informed at the local pub that it would had to be rescued by helicopter after driving a deliv- Remediation His clients include Mijksenaar Wayfinding in Amsterdam, be alright for my old off-road car. Once I reached the ery van up a mountain path in the Swiss Alps. All where he worked until last year. Deciding to broaden his top I had to wait for the snowplough to clear some these bizarre episodes have triggered a heated de- knowledge, he enrolled on a master’s degree in Information Design at the University of Reading. areas, and while waiting, a standard little car carry- bate over the spiralling effects that GPS and other Sensoriality ing a Saudi Arabian couple arrived on the scene. The technology related to road signage might produce Strategic vision snowplough crew and I were quite surprised to see on our everyday road trips. Type design Typography Visual catalogue Visual impact 63 29 ELISAVA Temes de disseny Joan Zalacain How New Technologies Could Change Road Signage in the Future its origins are military, having been developed for Regulation of Information fighter jets in the sixties and subsequently applied One of the drawbacks of these technologies is not to civilian aircraft. knowing who is regulating them and devising their Car companies have been experimenting with standards. VMSs and driver-triggered signs are the HUD design for a number of years, and several maintained and controlled by governments; GPS brands have recently decided to further its develop- navigation systems, however, are not. Two main ment, combining it with navigation systems. At the digital mapping companies control most of the moment HUDs are able to display a few prohibition, market, Navteq and TeleAtlas. Google uses their warning and mandatory traffic signs introduced in mapping services, although it has also begun to de- i Image 1. Variable message sign on a motorway. Photo: Donald Johansson. the system by mapping companies or read by sen- velop its own. All three are private; as mentioned, sors in front of cars. Extra information such as cur- the information they show is neither controlled nor rent speed and distance to the car ahead is also dis- regulated by any government, with the exception Those in favour of technology in road transport Other Road Transport Technologies played. HUDs are already offered by some brands as of information concerning traffic congestion. This have already predicted that traditional physical traf- Another technology that has been applied to the road an optional extra, and a specific type of HUD is also brings up a number of legal issues. If a car’s sensors fic signs on the road will eventually disappear. Oth- is VMS, Variable Message Signs [image 1], the large being developed for motorcycles. Still, Google is one misread a speed sign and the maximum speed ap- ers go even further, and have begun to envisage a black panels found on many motorways with LED step ahead as the GPS navigation screen is already pears incorrectly on the HUD, who will be blamed world of automated cars thanks to the development (light-emitting diode) text featuring dynamic infor- being used in Google Glass; in future, information if a driver gets a speeding ticket or causes an acci- of systems such as the Mercedes Steering Assist mation on changing road conditions. The presence may not only travel from the road to the car, but dent? If data mistakenly introduced by a mapping (where the driver does not have to steer, brake or ac- of such signs is increasing as governments choose from the road to the eye. company leads someone to drive off a cliff, the same celerate) in Germany and the Driverless Google Car, this technology to deliver selected information to in the United States. drivers, which can be updated regularly. These ideas may seem a little far-fetched, and Vehicle-triggered signs are another example of many people believe that technology will never ac- technology applied to road signage, automatically t Image 2. Current head-up display. t Image 3. New head-up display with enhanced navigation Photo: BMW AG. systems. Photo: BMW AG. tually replace drivers or the traditional devices that activated when drivers are approaching a specific guide them. Similar discussions are taking place in hazard, such as a dangerous curve or a nearby the aviation industry, where computers are gradu- school where children might unexpectedly cross ally assuming the responsibility of pilots, and the the road. This kind of technology has been in use debate is repeated in all those disciplines in which for many years, warning drivers of their speed lim- technology plays a key role. it in a particular area or of any sudden change in However, the truth is that new technologies have road conditions. Having been progressively updated, made their way into the world of road signs. Accep- such signs can now even alert drivers of the fact of tance of GPS devices is steadily increasing and most being too close to the car in front. drivers are now quite familiar with them. They feel Research in automotive industry is developing comfortable with the information that is selected further, and now combines all the aforementioned and delivered to them at each step, freeing them devices in one single information channel—the from what many consider the burden of having to HUD, Head-up Display—that projects essential in- pay constant attention to signs. GPS devices are formation on the inside of a car windscreen [images also convenient when an instruction is missed, for 2 and 3]. The main advantage of this technology is it can be repeated at the press of a button. If adverse that drivers do not have to take their eyes of the weather makes it difficult to see a sign clearly, a road in search of information, which is displayed in graphic representation of it can also be shown on front of them, designed to be read seamlessly so that a GPS screen. drivers are not required to change focus. Like GPS, 64 65 29 ELISAVA Temes de disseny Joan Zalacain How New Technologies Could Change Road Signage in the Future question arises. As these companies do not up- mation, particularly the more advanced signs that even faster pace than it is at present. Moreover, if date their navigation information when roadworks include diagrams with traffic congestion data, as HUD technology continues to evolve and soon be- require roads to be closed, some drivers could per- a result of which typefaces had to be slightly con- comes affordable, like GPS it could certainly affect haps continue to follow GPS directions. In order to densed. Condensed typefaces are not as legible as the future design of road signs. avoid such accidents, in 2009 the Dutch government standard letterforms, so the International Institute As mentioned previously, some even forecast introduced signs warning drivers to turn off their for Information Design and designer Erik Spieker- the total disappearance of traffic signs on roads, t Image 4.