When graphic design can save lives

Among the Home Front Command’s (Pikud Haoreph) responsibilities is warning us regarding incoming drones, rockets and missiles, instructing the public at large regarding protected spaces, their maps and lists of cities, towns, villages, kibbutzim and moshavim in danger published on TV and on our cellphones. Understanding this information speedily is critical. This is where good graphic design can save lives.

As their maps and lists are of poor quality and difficult to understand, thousands of Israelis, mainly the elderly, have been injured racing to shelter. The following are some preliminary proposals towards improvement.

Many versions of these maps and lists have appeared in the past where just one of quality is needed. The two should be seen as a single unified communicable unit; the use of color to integrate them fully should be investigated.

Regarding the maps:

To help us understand immediately if our area is in danger, boundaries of neighboring countries as well as their names should appear, their areas of a different color, Israel in white, thus leading our eyes to those areas inside Israel which are in danger. Names of major cities as well as major roads should stand out, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea where relevant. The general boundaries of the areas in danger should be indicated, not of each individual town as is presently the case.

Regarding the lists of cities, towns, villages, kibbutzim and moshavim:

Long lists should be broken down into communicable geographical units; the use of color, here too, carefully studied.

To meet its responsibility, the Home Front Command is in urgent need of gifted graphic designers capable of creating an excellent single version, simplifying and clarifying their all-important information visually, thereby enabling clear and rapid communication to the Israeli public at large.

Our lives and limbs depend on it.

Gerard Heumann – Architect and Urban Designer, Jerusalem