MESSAGE FOR WEEK BEGINNING 16th July 2001

Signage

I was standing at a street corner in Hobart, Tasmania, recently and the lights changed to allow pedestrians to cross. As this happened there was the usual sound signal to alert blind people to the change of lights. But sound is not focused. So those seeking to cross in the other direction might have taken the signal as permission to cross and would have walked straight into the traffic. On a street corner where you can cross in either direetion, what is the solution? You could have different tones of sound but you would need to get used to these.

I have suggested that there should be a special 'signage squad' which would move around and notice bad, misleading or absent signage with some sort of power to fine or prosecute the offender. In some cases, airports especially, the signage is appalling. I am a very frequent traveller of average intelligence - I wonder what must happen to novice travellers.

Signage is not a description of correct routing. Signage is a response to the potential ignorance or confusion of a person at a particular point. When setting signs the setter must enter the mind of the user. For example if a sign points the way straight ahead and you come to a junction with routes to the left or right, the sign setter might say, "keep straight ahead because you have not been told to do otherwise". The user, however, does not have that faith in sign setters and so looks around for a new sign saying "keep on straight ahead".

There should be a game where the task is deliberately to misunderstand some instructions or communications but to do this in a very reasonable way.

Edward de Bono nmt
15th July 2001
London