Tuesday, February 09, 2010

(Un)friendly signs

When someone asks how to find my new office, I usually say, "Second floor of the library, behind the elevator." So you get off the elevator and look around for a way to get behind it. Turn right and you find a locked door and some bathrooms. Turn left and suddenly you find a path that leads behind the elevator and into a lovely open seating area connected to two offices, a conference room, a computer lab, and a small kitchen.

Now, though, we suddenly have explanatory signage attempting to say the same thing. This sign appeared yesterday, provoking a bit of debate. You come up to the second floor and see this sign immediately in front of your face. It's telling you to turn left, then left again, and then left again and you will enter the CTE, where I have my office. This meaning is clear to anyone who takes the time to think about it.

But who takes the time to think about signs? Someone in a hurry will see the arrow pointing to the right and think, "Right! Right...that would be the right choice." And there is a door to the CTE to the right, but it's the back door and it is always kept locked. I predict an epidemic of people banging on the back door and wondering why we're so unfriendly.

1 comment:

Bardiac said...

A little map thingy that showed no back door (or had a big LOCKED on what it showed) might help? At least for people who bother to look?