Gluten-Free Sign Description

To get a better in-depth feel for design elements and catching attention, I decided to observe different aspects of the sign in the Cafeteria. My goal was to watch people as they walked by the sign, and to see whether the sign was left noticed or not. Out of the thirty-two students that walked by the sign, only one student saw the gluten-free sign. Claire Korte, a student at the University of Oklahoma who noticed the gluten-free sign, said, “I only knew the sign was there because I am allergic to gluten and look for that, however, if I were a normal student, I would not notice the sign because it is ugly and boring to look at.” I went up to a student who had not noticed the sign and interviewed him. Garrett Warmen, a student at the University of Oklahoma who never noticed the gluten-free sign, said, “Honestly, I would have never known the sign was there. It is so dull; I would have never thought to even read it. I like bright colors and pictures.” Because the sign is missing key design elements, it leaves students on campus uninformed about

In turn, I constructed an informative gluten-free sign (see fig. 2), and placed it on the announcements board on my hallway, located on the eighth floor of the Walker Tower. I made sure to include good use of contrast, bright colors, a good layout, one image, and bold text. The results were exactly what I had expected to happen. I watched as twenty-four different girls in my hallway walked by the sign, and twenty-two took the time to look at the sign. Jessica Cipolla, a student at the University of Oklahoma, said, “Wow! It is great to know that the Cafeteria actually has more gluten-free options. It is crazy how better design of a flyer makes for informed students all over campus.” If the University of Oklahoma has better design processes of their flyers and signs, students would actually take the time to see what the sign is trying to state. Through my observations, I learned the importance of