Handwritten signs

Handwritten signs in an official, corporate-designed environment capture the attention because they represent an actual human who is responding to a communication failure.

In this drink dispenser in the Delta terminal at La Guardia Airport, the engineers have gotten fancy and added a scrolling banner of text that encourages us to "Encourage a refreshing drink..." The message then lets us know that the temperature of the drinks is currently "32F" and finally flashes the information we actually want to know, that is, the price.

The loop takes 9.4 seconds, and the price is flashed up for just 0.9 seconds. But 9.4 seconds is too long for many thirsty travelers to wait, and they must have wandered off to ask someone how much the drinks actually cost. Finally, an exasperated, anonymous employee added the handwritten sign.

Enjoy a refreshing drink and guess at the price from Will Bachman on Vimeo.

Here is the full soda machine:

From Innovation Bootcamp

A still photo of the handwritten message:

From Innovation Bootcamp

And the Snapple drink dispenser next to the soda dispenser had the same problem:

From Innovation Bootcamp