Now a days it seems that products have to be sold worldwide to be considered successful. Every product, a camera, a TV or a website, that aspires to become usable in different countries have to be carefully designed. Buttons, icons and colors should be either worldwide recognizable or adapted to the local market.

Design for the public space

City sign design seems to be a very localized field, traveling around I discovered that signs vary from country to country and often from city to city. I have an example of how a concept or sign could be differently interpreted.

Traveling in Argentina I saw the following sign… 

Public space sign designs in Buenos Aires (Argentina) are, in my opinion, pretty well done. The sign used to indicate the name of a plaza is not an exception but it is very localized. It’s clear for Argentineans that plazas have always trees and that’s why this sign works so good there. 

In Europe the plaza sign from Buenos Aires might not always be understood. In the old continent most plazas don’t have trees. 

Why this example?

This is to show why localization of designs are important. This example is about a design in the public space but it could be applied to software, web and product design. If you want to sell your product oversees you should take care of the meaning sign, symbols, icons and colors could have there; a good designer should think about localization and what signs or icons could potentially mean in another culture.