Sunday, March 21, 2010

When you don't need a thousand words...

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. But, what if you don't need a thousand words? To take a specific example (obviously, this blog was motivated by this very example!), every so often you find restaurants or bars separating restrooms for men vs. women with creative props or pictures that no doubt make good dinner conversations. But, do you really need to be tested when you are either desperate or intoxicated to discern one from the other and make the right decision.

Even the seemingly innocuous stickman can sometimes take more than a closer look. Is that a skirt or just a guy with a fat butt? How does it work in Scotland? Is that a Scotsman in his traditional kilt? On the flip side, don't women wear trousers - why do women put up with such stereotyping?

Why not just make it dead easy and spell it out "Men" and "Women". How difficult is that? When just two words are not just sufficient but most effective, don't waste nine hundred and ninety eight other with a picture!

2 comments:

Erratix said...

how about when they use the male female of some animal species and u're left scratching your head and wondering - 'which was the female again???'

Rhishi Pethe said...

At Motorola, they have made it even simpler. They have the Motorola M for Men and the inverted Motorola M for women. This works for almost everyone, unless you are in the habit of walking on your hands.