Human instict to ignore signage and helpful info?

[Arucard]

This is more a sighting of people's general inability to read signs or listen to information, as opposed to being customer related.

The cuilding I work in has 12 floors. My company occupies the first three, and the rest are occupied by others. As far as I know, we're the only company spanning multiple floors. Now, none of the companies are the type to have many visitors, so 95% of the time, the only people using the lifts are people who work there, and it's reasonable to expect that if you're in the lift alone, you're going to get to your destination uninterrupted.

This used to cause problems, since the indicators inside the lift were hard to see, so people in the lift going down would often almost barge into me on the second floor, thinking it was the ground floor.

Recently, the lifts have been renovated, now, instead of only having a small visual display where the number of the floor is highlighted, well above your head, we have a giantcomputer monitor with a large direction arrow and the floor number at eye-height. We also have a loud voice, which will announce whenever the lift stops "LEVEL #, GOING <DIRECTION>". I thought this was great, and people would no longer be confused about the floor they were on.

Of course, since I'm posting this, I was wrong. I can stand at the lift doors, and hear, from outside the lift "LEVEL TWO, GOING DOWN", and still have people almost run into me exiting the lift, thinking it's ground. People just don't like paying attention to any useful information, do they?

[RxBoy]

I can totally relate to what you are saying. Recently at my store we had a day where we, in conjunction with the local dept of health, had an unused medicine collection where people could bring their expired and/or unused medicines to us to be safely destroyed. The collection took place behind our store where we had a large tractor trailer truck we were using for the event.

There were so many signs posted in our entryway and all over the parking lot directing people where to go that we could have only made it easier by taking them by the hand. Yet all day long we had people coming into the store and walking up to the pharmacy trying to hand us their unused meds. So I'm inclined to agree with you that people really just don't read signs.

[Chromatix]

"'Level 9, Department of Mysteries,' and left it at that."

[dalesys]

"This way to 'The EGRESS' "

P.T. Barnum (I thimk)

[Mnemjian]

It is really puzzling how few people manage to read signs that are right in front of their faces. For example, we just rearranged the store a little and moved a section to another part of the store. Where that section used to be we put a big sign "[section] has moved to 9B!!!" Guess how many times I get asked where the section has gone every day? Answer: a lot

[infinitemonkies]

I get how someone could skip over a long disclaimer or paragraphs of fine print, but I just don't understand how someone can see a sign like "closed" or "out of order" or "Men's Restroom" and not read it.

I mean, I can't comprehend how it's physiologically possible to see a written word that short and not be able to absorb the meaning. If your eyes have passed over it, you just read it.




When it's raining, I set out a 3' tall, freestanding, bright yellow, 'caution wet floor' sign on the marble lobby floor. 1 out of every 4 people trip over it.

[TheSHAD0W]

A couple of years ago I purchased the old county courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico from Dona Ana county. It had been out of service for well over a year. When I bought it I put up a sign:

----------------------------------------------------------------
This facility is now
PRIVATE PROPERTY
all county business has been moved to...
(address, directions)
NO TRESPASSING
PROPIEDAD PRIVADA
----------------------------------------------------------------

This sign is red, with yellow and white lettering, posted right next to the front door, and is a bit difficult to miss in my opinion.

Lemme tell ya, I could've made a FORTUNE collecting property taxes from the people who walked in!

[infinitemonkies]

I thought of a sign to counteract this problem:

Reading is
FREE

Check all other publicly posted notices for details

Imagine how many times a day you'd have to explain it to SCs if you put that up

[Lady J'ssem]

I have a confession to make, I accidentally didn't see a sign while trying to find a restroom in the HD I was working in. I had asked one employee where said restroom was, and he told me to go to the main path, and I'd see a sign that pointed to the restroom... I went to the path (after thanking him, of course.), and looked, but did not see said sign. So I asked another employee... he pointed at the sign, (which was admittedly twisted, and not the type I was expectin, being thinner, longer, and black with white letters instead of their normal cream and orange signs, and much higher then normal) and told me to follow that all the way to the back. I blushed and thanked him, before walking away....

I'm just glad I didn't ask the same employee!

[El Pollo Guerrera]

Regarding signs in general, I have always said this: the bigger the sign, the more people will ignore it.

I have seen people desperately trying to open a locked door with a 2'x2' sign in big block letters that reads "PLEASE USE OTHER DOOR!", and had complaints about a tiny little sign that read "$20 charge for rewinding DVDs".

[ShugoAC]

In the hotel/motel I work in we lock up the lobby every evening at midnight, or just slightly later if there was a party and we're sweeping the rest of the drunks out.

Every night I put up signs with BIG hand drawn arrows saying "Lobby closed, please use the window to your left." *BIG arrow*.

Every single evening i have people try both doors, look up at me pointing to said night window to their left, grab both door handles and shake hard, look up at me... and then proceed to moan and complain that they cant get to the business center to access facebook and porn.

And I love the "WHY?????!1 are you closed??"

me: "Cause I'm the only employee here at night and it'd be a shame if i had to shoot someone accidentally because i thought they were going to steal our business equipment while I wasn't paying attention."

Always makes em ... O.o

(Edit: Want to point out that this is said in a joking way... Didn't want people to think i was a psychopath or anything.... Reasonable answers just end up being ignored and the shouting continues.)

[Pagan]

A couple of years ago I purchased the old county courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico from Dona Ana county. It had been out of service for well over a year. When I bought it I put up a sign:

Huh? Are you talking about the big white pueblo-style on Amador? 'Cause the county still owns that one and are trying to figure out what to do with it.

(I was just talking with my mom and she confirmed that it hasn't been sold to anyone. Believe me, it would have been all over the news down there.)

[mharbourgirl]

I mean, I can't comprehend how it's physiologically possible to see a written word that short and not be able to absorb the meaning. If your eyes have passed over it, you just read it.

I have a theory that may explain this phenomenon. Filtering out the overwhelming amount of sensory input in order to make sense of the world around us is a function of the human brain. We do it all the time. Kids haven't learned how to do it yet which is why they're so easily distracted and amazed by stuff adults consider unimportant and/or uninteresting. And why they notice stuff adults would rather they didn't.

Speaking for myself, this ability is rather overdeveloped because of the career choices I've made. I'm a librarian, and I am quite able to scan a huge amount of written information and only pick out the part I'm looking for. I literally don't see or remember anything else from the list I'm looking at or the shelves I'm searching through, my brain is only going to react to the item I'm specifically looking for. Take this to extremes and all you see is the sign that says 'Restroom', nothing else, and you can even get upset when someone insists that the 'Closed' sign is right there too, because you don't remember seeing it and now you think someone's playing a prank on you.

Which is to say, people are strange, and I should know.

[Kogarashi]

I have a theory that may explain this phenomenon. Filtering out the overwhelming amount of sensory input in order to make sense of the world around us is a function of the human brain. We do it all the time. Kids haven't learned how to do it yet which is why they're so easily distracted and amazed by stuff adults consider unimportant and/or uninteresting. And why they notice stuff adults would rather they didn't.

Take this to extremes and all you see is the sign that says 'Restroom', nothing else, and you can even get upset when someone insists that the 'Closed' sign is right there too, because you don't remember seeing it and now you think someone's playing a prank on you.

That does sound very likely. I know there are a lot of things I don't notice even when I'm looking for them. I do try to not snap when someone points out what I've been looking for (usually right in front of my face) or the sign that I missed, and apologize. For instance, I was at a convention last month, and in the dealer's room I went to walk through one crowded booth to look at what they had. I completely missed the "Exit Only, Do Not Enter" sign they had next to the opening I was about to use until the employee sitting there rather exasperatedly pointed it out to me. I apologized, then noticed the sign (which should have been obvious), and went in the actual entrance. Immediately after me, someone else tried going in the exit, when they should have seen me turn away as well.

The difference, however, is not yelling and screaming about it when it's finally pointed out to you. Getting upset because you didn't spot it is okay, but becoming an SC is not.

[TheSHAD0W]

Huh? Are you talking about the big white pueblo-style on Amador? 'Cause the county still owns that one and are trying to figure out what to do with it.

(I was just talking with my mom and she confirmed that it hasn't been sold to anyone. Believe me, it would have been all over the news down there.)

http://courthouselc.com/

And yes, it has been in the news.