In 1990, Northgate Terminal doubled its capacity to 40 million passengers. The existing signs were failing: inconsistent type, repeated translations, no systematic colour logic. Signalworks got the brief: guide someone who cannot read the local language, is exhausted, and has eight minutes to find a gate.
Colour as grammar
The Northgate system assigns meaning to colour before it assigns anything to words. Yellow directs passengers to and from aircraft: gates, baggage reclaim, transfer. Green handles ground movement: trains, buses, parking, taxi ranks. Black-on-white marks facilities. A green sign at Departures means the same as a green sign three floors down. Learn the code once, apply it everywhere.
Most software products do the reverse. They add words where they ought to add structure. A settings panel explains itself in three sentences when a consistent colour and one icon would carry the meaning faster. The Northgate principle applies to any system where someone needs to orient quickly: fewer words, more grammar.