• Drive: 2-minute video excerpt

  • TED Talk on Drive

  • Order the new book!

  • Get the other books

  • Get my free newsletter!

    Receive excerpts from my upcoming book, DRIVE, along with exclusive articles, videos and other sneak peaks.

  • Twitter

  • Categories

  • Archive for the Emotionally intelligent signage Category


    An emotionally intelligent . . . unsubscribe link?

    Published February 8th, 2010

    Here’s a new one, courtesy of Eddie Garcia. Take a look at this unsubscribe link from Groupon. Pretty clever. I have a feeling it could actually get people to reconsider ending their subscription.
    (Note: Because Groupon is apparently overwhelmed with visitors today, I had to link to a Screenr video of the unsubscribe page rather than [...]

    Emotionally intelligent signage . . . in an airport?

    Published January 24th, 2010

    Herking and jerking through airport security these days is nobody’s idea of fun. Jackets end up in tangled balls. Shoes and belts enter the X-ray, then don’t reappear. Gray bins collide, knocking laptops to the floor. The whole experience can be discombobulating.
    Enter the good people at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport. As I discovered last week, [...]

    Emotionally intelligent subway signage

    Published November 14th, 2009

    Rodney Martin send this example of emotionally intelligent signage from — of all places — the New York City subway. Instead of simply issuing an edict about block doors, the sign tries to explain the reason for the rule and maybe stir a few molecules of empathy.I’m not convinced, this will be effective in [...]

    Signs that make you look twice — Part 2

    Published November 1st, 2009

    My old friend and college classmate Sharon Roth sends this tangle of a sign, which she snapped on the mean streets of Park Ridge, Illinois. The “Stop Means Stop” addendum at the bottom could be effective, she says. But there’s so much clutter and noise surrounding it that many drivers tune out rather than slow down.  (In other [...]

    Signs that make you look twice — Part 1

    Published November 1st, 2009

    Jason Soll – a sprinter, a TEDster, and a central Ohio homeboy — sends this sign from his dorm at Claremont McKenna College. It’s clever. And by getting us to look twice, the sign might prod us into following its instructions.

    Where are the dang outlets?

    Published October 22nd, 2009

    That’s the question that power-mad (in the electrical sense) travelers ask when they arrive at an airport with their phones and laptops screaming “battery low.”The search can quickly lead an upstanding citizen down the low road. I’ll cop to: scouring every baseboard in a terminal in a mouse-like quest for a power hole; pinching [...]

    Emotionally intelligent . . . invoices?

    Published September 28th, 2009

    Jennifer Davis — and her trusty four-legged companion, Priest — send this example of an invoice that uses empathy and emotional intelligence in an intriguing way.

    On the initial patient visit to Leawood Animal Hospital outside Kansas City, Jen explains, “the nurse snaps a shot of your pup (or kitty) and before the doctor finishes your [...]

    When it rains, it bleeds

    Published September 14th, 2009

    Tom Isaacson of New Zealand sends this 90-video of the Papkura District police’s efforts to get drivers to slow down in inclement weather. The technique is a bit disturbing — and, to me at least, evokes religious associations — but maybe it’s effective.

    Emotionally intelligent signage meets road rage

    Published August 19th, 2009

    Here’s one that’s hard to categorize. In Durham, North Carolina, a few neighbors distressed at cars ripping through their traffic circle took signage duties into their own hands and posted the sign below.Is this emotional intelligence (“Made you look!”)? Or is this a threat from a bunch of vigilantes (“Slow your butt down ’cause I’m [...]

    Emotionally intelligent signage on the road

    Published August 17th, 2009

    Carl Webber sends this terrific sign from Epping, New Hampshire and reported in the Manchester Union-Leader.It’s a classic example of emotionally intelligent signage: It aims to bring compliance with the rule (don’t speed through construction sites) by encouraging empathy on the part of the sign viewer. Added bonus: Some of these signs replace “Dad” with [...]

    « Previous Entries