SCIW (“skew”)

These 4 letters remind us to ‘drink in’ info from traffic signs one gulp at a time. So, approaching a sign, ask yourself what’s its …
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• SHAPE : circle, triangle, or square ? (Are we being Ordered, Warned, or just Informed ?)

• COLOUR : restriction, obligation, or just information ? (More red = more danger or emphasis; yellow = road works; blue = do what you’re being told!)

• ICONS : can you see arrows, or silhouettes (of people / vehicles, hospital / railway station ?)

• WORDS : last of all, read ... only if you have time and need to. (Does the length of the word, or its “overall shape”, tell you enough ? Are there numbers ? They’ll be distances, times, or slopes).

It’s just like walking towards someone holding a book. Is it big or small, shut or open, thick/thin, in colour or not, with pictures or just words? How are the pages laid out? Now you’re closer, do the words look like speech or a list, a poem or a dense novel?

Notice how we’ve not yet READ any words from that book. Yet already we know a lot of what to expect before deciding if we want (or need) to engage with the “unfolding story”.

Here’s an example.