Seeing through the eyes of a child

"But Daddy, I don't want to park here for 3 hours." - my 4 year old son.

We have signs everywhere to help on usability. But many times we make assumptions within those signs. This was a very legitimate question from my son. Because the sign is based on the assumption that you are aware that you do not have to park for 3 hours, it is up to 3 hours. We make assumptions everyday. This is a major part of us taking in the information we get day to day.

But to assume people can figure it out, or to throw stuff out their as a "right to passage" is unnecessary. To increase communication, simplicity, and adoption we need to remove assumptions from what we do. The worst of all is correlating your assumptions to the intelligence of a user. Doing this in technology is sadly seen way to much.