Does the advent of GPS mean we'll no longer need them?
It's a question posed in a piece on Slate:
"In the summer of 2008, a satellite navigation specialist named Colin Beatty fired up a 27-slide Power Point presentation titled "Could personal navigation systems herald the demise of much fixed signage?" Perhaps out of deference to his audience—Beatty was presenting to the Sign Design Society, Britain's leading association for environmental graphic design—the tone was somewhat measured. (Note Beatty's use of could and much.) But Beatty, who founded his satnav consultancy CBil 23 years ago, had bad news for the sign world: He believes the advent of geolocational technology will eventually kill the sign.
Sign designers tend to sniff at predictions of their obsolescence. Satellite navigation technology has been around in one form or another since the 1960s, though consumer applications have gained ground only in the last decade. We can now find personal navigation systems in our cars and in our cellular phones. And the rise of the Internet has also given us access to Web mapping services like Google Maps. But anyone who's ever used an in-car GPS device or a MapQuest printout knows that you still need signs to get you where you're going. When your TomTom tells you to get off the highway at Exit 13, you look for the sign that says Exit 13. Signs reassure us that we're going the right way. They give us real-world confirmation that our new digital advisers are giving us good counsel."
It's a question posed in a piece on Slate:
"In the summer of 2008, a satellite navigation specialist named Colin Beatty fired up a 27-slide Power Point presentation titled "Could personal navigation systems herald the demise of much fixed signage?" Perhaps out of deference to his audience—Beatty was presenting to the Sign Design Society, Britain's leading association for environmental graphic design—the tone was somewhat measured. (Note Beatty's use of could and much.) But Beatty, who founded his satnav consultancy CBil 23 years ago, had bad news for the sign world: He believes the advent of geolocational technology will eventually kill the sign.
Sign designers tend to sniff at predictions of their obsolescence. Satellite navigation technology has been around in one form or another since the 1960s, though consumer applications have gained ground only in the last decade. We can now find personal navigation systems in our cars and in our cellular phones. And the rise of the Internet has also given us access to Web mapping services like Google Maps. But anyone who's ever used an in-car GPS device or a MapQuest printout knows that you still need signs to get you where you're going. When your TomTom tells you to get off the highway at Exit 13, you look for the sign that says Exit 13. Signs reassure us that we're going the right way. They give us real-world confirmation that our new digital advisers are giving us good counsel."
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