Ambiguous Visual Controls Archives | Page 2 of 3

Ambiguous Visual Controls: KEEP RED OFF LINE

By Jon Miller - January 5th, 2011

Who is Red and why is it important to keep him off line? This Monday I realized that for the past 13 years I have been stepping on or over these letters on the floor in SeaTac International Airport without taking any action regarding R

Effective Visual Controls and the Minimum Noticeable Difference

By Jon Miller - November 2nd, 2010

On a recent trip to a market in southern China it occurred to me that there must be a thriving industry producing red ink in this country. By red ink I mean not financial losses but the literal wet and sanguine stuff that so much of th

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Lost in the Supermarket

By Jon Miller - October 16th, 2010

Visual controls must at the very minimum be unambiguous, and either indicate normal versus abnormal or to positively specify a problem condition in order to be useful. Ambiguous visual controls are a waste of print and only good as exa

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Donut Shop Edition

By Jon Miller - June 30th, 2010

Always on the lookout for ambiguous visual controls, I spotted one today at the donut shop by our office during a stop for my morning coffee. These pastries which were clearly a tray of vintage 1970s Orange Shag Carpet donuts were misl

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Waste Please

By Jon Miller - April 7th, 2010

There is something sinister about a place that calls itself “the happiest place on earth”. How did they arrive at that superlative conclusion? Did they benchmark GNH (Gross National Happiness) against other locations on ear

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Invisible Inventory Management

By Jon Miller - December 28th, 2009

It appears that our local Hello Kitty store is low on stock of invisible pens. I only see one invisible pen in this display (or rather, don’t see it). I would hate to have the job of the invisible pen warehouseman on cycle counti

Ambiguous Visual Controls: Come Closer. No, stay Away!

By Jon Miller - August 20th, 2009

Peter Köves shared an amusing example of this ambiguous or perhaps downright dangerous visual control. When hiking in the countryside of South Limburg near the Dutch city of Maastricht, I stumbled upon this sign on the side of the pat

Ambiguous Visual Controls… this one’s pretty clear actually

By Jon Miller - August 13th, 2009

I waited and waited but didn’t catch sight of any humped zebras making a run for it. I bet their crossing frequency plots out as a histograms with a bimodal distribution.

Ambiguous Visual Controls: This is Elite Access

By Jon Miller - May 22nd, 2009

Thanks go out to Bill Sampson, a lean six sigma consultant and friend of mine for snapping this photo of an ambiguous visual control in an airport boarding area. This attempt at visual management raises more questions than it answers.

Visual Management Resource for Lean Hospitals

By Jon Miller - April 13th, 2009

Here is another recent find on visual management: the website of MediFilm “the leaders in healthcare visual management systems”. Who knew there was such a thing to be leaders of? Well done in any case, making a product out

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