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| Category: | communication | Date of Incident: | 2002.01.11 |
| Company: | State Library of Tasmania | Item or Service: | Elevator Directory |
The State Library of Tasmania, located in downtown Hobart (population of Great Hobart around 180,000 in 2001) on the island of Tasmania off the southern coast of Australia, is a typical library of a medium-size city.
The State Library of Tasmania recently updated their directory signage on each elevator landing, indicating what was on each of the four floors, designated G (ground), 1, 2, and 3. The directory sign places G at the top and 3 at the bottom as shown in the rather poor-quality photograph at right.
Think about it; that is blazingly wrong. Tasmania, though in the southern hemisphere, still builds buildings where the floor numbers increase upward, just like the rest of the world...
The sign company designed a sign in a vacuum. If they had thought about what it was used for, for one moment, they would have put G at the bottom and 3 at the top, in the same order as the physical building.
Lo and behold, usability testing is needed for things besides software...
