Every October, Transport Month asks South Africa to think about how we move. But it also offers a lesson in information design: how do we know where to go? Before anyone boards a taxi, train or bus, they’ve already done the hardest part. They’ve read the system. A sign, a rank, a route, a gesture, a landmark. In seconds, usually in a hurry, and often in a language that isn’t their first. Transport is information design under pressure, and it’s the truest test of whether communication actually works.

Information Design in the Real World: A language nobody designed, and millions understand

October was declared Transport Month in 2005 to raise awareness of transport’s role in the economy and to encourage a safer, more affordable, accessible and reliable system (gov.za). And the minibus taxi is central to how people get to work: Stats SA’s General Household Survey 2024 found that 24.3% of workers travel by taxi, close to the 25.9% who use private cars, while 22.8% walk (Stats SA). wwwstatssa

Anyone who has stood at a rank knows how that system speaks: not through printed route maps, but through hands. Artist-anthropologist Susan Woolf spent years documenting this visual language, compiling the first South African art collection of the hand signs commuters use to tell taxi drivers their destinations (Wits University). Her work went further: the artworks were produced in a Braille version too, so visually impaired commuters, among the system’s 12 million daily users, could learn the signs by touch. In 2010, the South African Post Office issued a stamp collection based on her work, later ranked the world’s fifth most important stamp release of the year by StampNews.com. In 2011, fourteen of her pieces featured in MoMA’s Talk to Me exhibition in New York, representing South Africa in a show exploring communication itself (MoMA).

The lesson is one every communicator should sit with

 A wayfinding system used by millions wasn’t commissioned, branded or approved by a committee. Its users designed it out of necessity. Great information design starts with how people actually communicate, not how organisations wish they would.

Why words alone aren’t a safe assumption

Think about the last time you tried to navigate an unfamiliar transport system. You weren’t looking for a paragraph. You were looking for an answer. Which route? Which direction? Where do I get off? The same applies to public information. Words matter, but so do symbols, colour, hierarchy, language and placement. Good information design reduces the effort it takes to find and understand what matters.

The global lesson: design for the moment of use

When Britain’s first motorways arrived in the late 1950s, designers Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert were asked to create signs that could be read at speed. They moved from capitals to mixed-case lettering because it speeds up word recognition, and reportedly tested prototypes by driving past them at 60mph in the rain at night (Design Week). Kinneir framed the brief with one question: “What do I want to know, trying to read a design at speed?” The system that followed took effect across Britain in 1965 and, more than half a century later, is still the look of British roads. Jock Kinneir +2

South Africa’s taxi hand signs evolved through everyday commuter practice. Britain’s road signs emerged through a formal design commission. Different origins, same principle: successful information design begins with how people need to use it.

What this means beyond the road

Most organisations aren’t designing road signs. But every report, form, website, app and campaign has its own moment of use: a reader in a hurry, distracted, perhaps reading in a second language. Four questions worth asking:

 Have we watched how our audience actually looks for information? Can people find what matters first, without having to search for it? Are words, symbols, colour and structure working together? Have we tested it in the conditions it will really be used in, not just in a meeting room?

As we said earlier this year, clarity is a business advantage. Transport just proves it faster.

Our perspective

At Design@Bay, information design is where strategy meets the reader. Whether we’re developing a report, infographic, publication or digital experience, we start with the audience, the context and the moment of use.

Because good communication isn’t simply about presenting information beautifully. It’s about making it understandable, accessible and useful.

If your communication makes people work too hard to find the message, it may be time to rethink the design. Talk to us at Design@Bay.