Designer Kate Canales presented a talk on the brilliance of improvised signage during the TEDNext 2025 conference [1].

The presentation highlights a fundamental disconnect between professional design and the actual needs of users in public spaces. When official signage is confusing or absent, people create their own solutions to guide others, revealing a form of communal problem-solving that bypasses traditional corporate or government planning.

Canales has spent more than 20 years photographing these makeshift signs [1]. Her work documents the various ways individuals use cardboard, tape, and markers to provide essential instructions where technology or official systems have fallen short. These improvised markers often appear in high-stress or high-confusion environments, serving as a bridge between a failing system and a successful user outcome.

According to the presentation recorded on Nov. 11, 2025, these signs represent a collective effort to improve the human experience [1]. By documenting these occurrences, Canales said that these "accidental" designs offer a roadmap for professional designers to understand where their own work is failing. The handmade nature of these signs reflects a direct response to immediate necessity, a contrast to the often slow and rigid process of official urban planning.

The talk emphasizes that human ingenuity often emerges in the gaps left by institutional failure. When a person takes the time to write a direction on a scrap of paper and tape it to a wall, they are providing a service to the community that the official design process missed. This behavior transforms a passive user into an active contributor to the public infrastructure [1].

By analyzing these improvised solutions, designers can identify specific pain points in the user journey. The persistence of these signs suggests that the need for clearer communication remains unmet despite the availability of modern design tools. Canales said that the most effective designs are often those that mimic the clarity and directness of these handmade interventions [1].

“Kate Canales has spent more than 20 years photographing makeshift signs”

This study of 'vernacular design' suggests that user-generated interventions are not merely clutter, but are critical data points for urban planners. By observing where people feel compelled to create their own signage, designers can identify systemic failures in navigation and accessibility that traditional audits might overlook.