We’ve all been there. You’re in a high-end hotel or a trendy “concept” restaurant. You head toward the restrooms, only to be met with two stylized, abstract symbols. One looks like a triangle; the other looks like an inverted trapezoid. We wonder: “Should I use the door with a triangle or a trapezoid ?” Is the door with the “High Heel” for women, or is it just a fancy shoe store? Does the door with the “Pipe” mean men, or is it a smoking room? We feel like we’re suddenly being forced to solve a riddle. When you’re in a hurry, you don’t want to play a guessing game. You just want to know which door is yours.
In our quest to make every building look “modern” or “stylish,” we have forgotten the most basic rule of design: Don’t make the user think. A restroom sign shouldn’t be a piece of art; it should be a clear instruction that anyone—a child, a tired traveler, or a senior citizen—can understand in less than a second.
As someone passionate about User Experience (UX) and Usability, I find this trend of prioritizing “aesthetic style” over “functional clarity” deeply frustrating.
The Problem: When Creativity Causes Confusion
In the world of design, there is a golden rule: Don’t make the user think. When designers use “creative” signs—like a pipe vs. a high heel, or a rooster vs. a hen—they are adding unnecessary cognitive load. For a local, it might be a smirk-worthy joke. For a tourist, a child, or someone with a visual impairment, it’s a barrier.
I’ve often wanted to photograph these “design fails” to document them, but let’s be honest: taking photos of bathroom doors in public is a quick way to get a visit from security. The optics are terrible, even if the intention is purely for a UX case study!
The Universal Solution: Clarity Over Cleverness
If we want to create a truly inclusive and usable environment, we need to return to standardization.
While the modern world discusses unisex spaces, we must design for our specific cultural and safety contexts. In India, clear differentiation isn’t just about tradition; it’s a matter of privacy, safety, and comfort. To prevent confusion or the exploitation of “grey areas” in signage, a universal standard is the most effective tool.
My Proposal for the “Universal Sign”:
Color Coding: Utilizing high-contrast colors that are instantly recognizable (e.g., Blue for Men, Pink/Maroon for Women).
Clear Lettering: Bold, sans-serif letters like ‘M’ and ‘F’.
Iconography: Using the standard ISO human figures that are understood regardless of the language you speak.
Why Functionality Must Win
A bathroom sign is not a piece of art; it is a navigational tool. 1. Accessibility: People with low vision or cognitive disabilities rely on familiar shapes and high contrast. 2. Emergency: No one wants to “interpret” art when they are in a rush. 3. Safety: In a country like India, clear boundaries help maintain social order and ensure that women feel secure in public spaces.
Final Thoughts
To the architects and interior designers out there: By all means, make the hallway beautiful. Choose the finest marble and the warmest lighting. But when it comes to the door handle, please—just tell us which room is which.
The best design is the one that disappears because it worked so perfectly you didn’t even have to think about it.
*The post is being refined with more examples and designs
Fifteen years ago, an unusual wedding invitation landed in my inbox. The subject line was “Are you invited?” It was from my Sainik School friend, Jagan & I still think about it today.
Jagan was a young rebel influenced by the teachings of Vethathiri Maharishi. His reasoning was not to blindly follow “illogical” traditions. He felt marriage function these days are the saddest moments for the parents from middle class & below middle class and questioned why families spend a lifetime’s earnings on a single day to impress relatives who often leave the hall with a quiet envy or lingering comparison rather than blessings from the heart. Why are they subtly forced to buy enormous gold jewels? Why do we invite 1000s of people for the wedding, if the people who really care and matter in our life might be just a handful?
The kicker? He explicitly told friends: “I am not gonna invite any of you.” He wanted to save that money for orphans and the starving. While he eventually had to compromise for his bride’s sake, his logic planted a seed in me: Why do we force ourselves beyond our financial capacity, to impress others? Are we too status driven?
1. The Hidden Cost of Social Comparison
Fast forward to today. This pressure to match expectations hasn’t disappeared; it has simply migrated to social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook.
I recently watched a video by Food Pharmer regarding the “Reality of Kid’s Birthday Parties.” He hit the exact same nerve Jagan did in 2009. We often see parents hosting elaborate first birthdays—designer cakes, professional crews, and wedding-level decor—for a one-year-old who won’t even remember the day.
As Food Pharmer noted, these grand gestures are frequently driven by our modern digital culture. We are no longer just celebrating a milestone; we are subtly feeling the pressure to compete in a digital arena, spending resources to fulfill social expectations.
2. The Psychology of External Validation
A long time ago, I was reading a series of articles by a psychologist in a Tamil weekly, which helped me understand why people resort to show-off.
She shared an observation from the classroom: students who are naturally secure in their grades often remain quiet and polite. They feel comfortable in their reality and don’t feel an urgent need to prove it to the room. Conversely, students struggling under immense pressure or falling behind sometimes resort to louder, attention-seeking behavior—not out of malice, but as a psychological defense mechanism to mask a fragile sense of security.
This pattern doesn’t end at graduation. It follows us into adulthood, shifting from classroom behavior to financial choices.
There is a beautiful difference between celebrating an occasion grandly because you genuinely want to and can afford to, versus stretching oneself far beyond one’s means just to engineer an illusion of success for the outside world. When we feel an unconscious pressure to measure up, we sometimes use extravagant displays—whether it’s an over-leveraged wedding, a luxury car on a tight budget, or a hyped celebration—as a shield to signal safety to a judgmental world.
True internal security allows us to be content with simplicity, choosing grandness only when it brings joy, not when it’s meant to prove a point.
The real trap isn’t the stage or the spotlight itself; it’s the exhausting financial and emotional debt we incur when we let external approval dictate our worth.
3. The Shelf-Life of a Memory
Consider our parents’ weddings. They usually had just one simple physical album, and almost certainly no video coverage. Today, a wedding production requires an army of photographers, videographers, drones, cranes, and real-time social media reels.
But if we pause to analyze the long-term utility, a familiar pattern emerges: two or three months after the big day, once the initial excitement has faded and you’ve flipped through the pictures once or twice, the heavy albums and digital drives are packed away safely in a cupboard or attic. Many of us don’t revisit them for years, if not decades.
If that is the reality, is it truly worth spending lakhs of rupees on elaborate photography packages just to capture every angle? Wouldn’t a single, beautifully curated album of genuine moments—along with a few framed photos for the living room wall—keep us just as happy, while protecting our pockets?
Ask yourself: how many times did you look at your wedding album in the last few years?
4. The Math of Freedom
This leads us to a profound truth recently shared by a financial analyst: If you have a good income and reduce your tendency to unnecessarily impress your neighbors, you can reach financial independence in a shorter duration of the time.
Every rupee spent on creating a “perfect image” for someone else’s eyes is a rupee taken away from your own future freedom.
The Status Choice (Short-term High)
The Freedom Choice (Long-term Peace)
1,000 guests to avoid “What will people say?”
50 loved ones; Invest the rest in an Index Fund.
Designer birthday themes for social media updates.
A day at the park; Adding to the child’s education fund.
Upgrading a car just to match the neighbors.
Driving a reliable car; Buying back your time and peace.
Be Brave Enough to be “Boring”
Jagan’s “non-invite” was a gift. It wasn’t about being rude; it was a reminder that we don’t owe anyone a performance of our success.
True wealth isn’t about having the most expensive decorations or the loudest celebrations; it’s about having the peace of mind to know you are financially secure and your family is genuinely happy.
Before making our next big spend, it is worth asking ourselves a gentle question: “Would I still choose this if I couldn’t share it with the world online?”
If the answer is no, perhaps the best investment we can make is to keep our money, protect our peace, and buy our freedom instead.
P.S. Walk into some Indian homes, and you will likely find multiple wall clocks, stackable travel bags, and identical photo frames—some hanging up, but many lying idle on top of the bero (cupboard). These are the lingering artifacts of marriage gifts. Social compulsions often drive guests to buy these standard items. But when ten different people gift the exact same thing, the excess simply gathers dust for years before wearing out.
Contrast this with the traditional Tamil concept of Moi (மொய்). In the olden days, guests gifted money, which was meticulously noted down in a ledger. The newly married couple could use this collective fund to comfortably buy exactly what they needed to set up their new home, without pinching their pockets. Down the line, they simply returned the favor by gifting the same amount back when attending a function at the sender’s home. It was a beautiful, practical cycle of mutual financial support—proving that our ancestors understood functional utility long before we traded it for empty, repetitive gift-giving.
Note: This piece is not intended to hurt or discourage those who have the financial means and wish to spend generously on special occasions for their loved ones. It is simply written as a gentle reflection for those who feel societal pressure to go desperately beyond their means.
Attitude is Everything 