There are still long novels that come out every year, but it’s not nearly as common as it used to be. Our attention spans are so short that we don’t even realize how short they are.īooks used to be long. If your site takes more than a couple seconds to load, users will leave. Most people get frustrated when they have to wait 5 seconds to see the YouTube video they’re trying to watch. It’s hard to grab and keep people’s attention. Obviously this isn’t the end-all-be-all of universal communication, but through collective knowledge and visual communication The Noun Project is on its way toward creating universal meaning. Although a specific icon may not be universally understood, every user who takes a stab at it is taking a baby step toward creating understanding. The Noun Project was created for “creating, sharing and celebrating the world’s visual language” and has an icon for just about any word you can think of. The Noun Project is another great example of a visual communication standard. We’re even seeing brands pick up on this and use it to their advantage as they try to tap into global markets without needing to create multiple messages or campaigns.ĭomino’s allows you to order a pizza by texting or tweeting a pizza emoji.įacebook launched what was supposed to be (but thankfully wasn’t) a dislike button that turned out to be a list of emojis you can react with.īecause typing your reaction is hard. Sure, emojis are often interpreted contextually, but, ultimately, they allow us to communicate without having to say a word. Emojis and brandsĮmojis are the modern-day version of an attempt at universal language. If we create something that’s already known and understood, we don’t have to reiterate the meaning.Ĭave painting of a horse at Lascaux. This is where essential truths come into play. What happens when you travel to another country and you don’t speak the native language? How do you get around? Hope someone knows your language? Point and sign? Cry? Designing meaningĬommunicating universally isn’t easy but it’s not impossible. But to a client who doesn’t understand our technical jargon, I might as well be flinging spaghetti at the wall.Īnd it only gets more difficult as we try to communicate with others who don’t speak our language. I can talk about user experience, adaptable agile, the power and flexibility of specific languages, or any other buzzword that my coworkers and I may understand. My clients and I may technically speak the same language, but we speak a different technical language that’s based on our area of expertise. “Universal communication is based in accessibility.”Īs a software consultant, I often have problems communicating with clients. Even within groups that speak the same language it can be difficult to communicate. It’s almost as if we intuitively understand each other.īut communication only gets more difficult as we interact with others less familiar to us. In fact, sometimes we even have our own adaptations of language within these close knit groups we belong to. It’s easy to communicate with friends and family. Too many times we think of communication through our lens of the world. The difficulty in communicating lies in communicating a message meaningfully across language, cultural, and contextual barriers. The difficulty in communicating is not in the act of communication itself. Great design speaks an essential truth without saying a word. If Donald Trump gets elected president, it’ll be the first time a reality TV series is set in the White House.Įssential truths are things we know to be true regardless of culture, context, or any other confounding variable. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west.
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