In a visual workplace, information is converted into simple, universally understood visual devices and installed in the process of work itself, as close to the point of use as possible. The result transforms a formerly mute work environment into one that speaks, eloquently and precisely, about how to use it effectively and efficiently.

The most complete example of this outside the workplace is our system of roads and highways. In the United States alone, 150 million cars are on the road every day—150 million killing machines. And yet relatively few people die, proportionally only the tiniest fraction of the sum, thanks to visual information sharing.

The vast array of visual devices that populate our roads and highways makes it possible for drivers everywhere to get precisely where they want to go, safely, and on time—day after day, week after week, year after year. Those devices include (but are by no means limited to): exit and speed signs, speed bumps, white lines marking the sides of road, other white lines that guide us through a sharp turn to the left or right, center yellow lines—dashed and solid. This is the language of driver safety imbedded into the roadway itself and the operational language of a large portion of our national economy. That economy would collapse without roads and highways that speak.

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