Day338: Casablanca “Symmetry of Languages”
Since I like traveling by train, I try to take trains whenever possible. It offers a smooth, shake-free ride that lets me focus on my work, and by booking a window seat, it becomes the ultimate office where I can simply gaze at the passing scenery whenever I need a break. My clients would probably never imagine that the design data they receive was sent from a train somewhere in Morocco. Morocco’s railway network isn’t very extensive, so I’ve mostly been traveling by bus until now. That’s why I’m enjoying this “train office” to the fullest.
In Day328: Chefchaouen “”, I noticed that the diagram at the bus stop was oriented in the opposite direction. On the train as well, I found an interesting layout that only works because the reading directions of the languages are different. On the electronic boards at train stations, French text is aligned to the left on the left side, while Arabic text is aligned to the right. The scrolling text appears from the right and disappears to the left in French, while in Arabic it appears from the left and disappears to the right. This contrasting layout clearly separates the two languages and is actually quite easy to read. If we tried the same thing with English and Japanese, right-aligning one of them would make it harder to read, and even if they were set at the same size, one would appear visually dominant. That’s why you rarely see this kind of arrangement in Japan. It may seem obvious that when languages differ, the rules of design change as well. Yet living in an island country like Japan, it’s something we easily forget.
電車で移動する旅が好きなので、電車が通っていればなるべく電車で旅をする。揺れないので落ち着いて仕事ができ、窓辺の席を予約すれば、飽きたら風景を眺められる最高のオフィスだ。クライアントの方はまさか届いたデザインデータがモロッコの電車から送られたとは思いもしないだろう。モロッコは鉄道網がそれほど発達しておらず、これまでずっとバスだったので心ゆくまで電車オフィスを楽しんでいる。
Day328: Chefchaouen “”ではバス停のダイヤグラムが逆方向だったのを見つけたが、電車でも読む方向が違うからこそのレイアウトを見つけた。電車の駅の電光掲示板の文字はフランス語が左側に左揃え、アラビア語は右揃えで、流れる文字はフランス語が右から現れて左に消え、アラビア語は左から現れて右に消える。対照的なレイアウトにより明確に分かれていて結構見やすい。英語と日本語で同じことをすると、右揃えで配置した方が読みにくくなり、同じサイズで配置したとして優劣がついてしまうので、日本ではなかなか見られないものだ。言語が違えば、デザインのルールも変わるということは当たり前なのに、島国の日本にいると忘れてしまいがちだ。
