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How Many Signs Does It Take To Locate A Room?

16. At least. Sixteen! That’s for academics!

It’s not a big building. There are only just 4 storeys (and one basement). It’s not a maze. It’s just a rather longish building. There are only two stairwells. But it seems, some academics need, or believe they need, 16 directional signs to locate a single room on the 4th storey of the building.

The excessive numbers isn’t so much because the directional signs started from the wrong building. The wrong building, because it seems it is preferred to take the elevator up three storeys, walk a long way, then climb one storey up the stairs, mostly in air-con comfort. As opposed to starting from the correct building, walking mostly along a corridor with no air-con, to take an elevator directly to the 4th storey.

That’s not the reason. The signs are just excessive. Like, for example, the above directional sign was put at a point along a narrow corridor that turns to the right. There is no where else to go. No doors. No forks. No junction. It is a mandatory right-turn. Is someone expected to get stuck trying to find an alternative to the obvious?

Or some other sign that points towards the stairs, but before that there is a door to the Gents. So add another sign to point again toward the stairs. Would someone be left wondering if their destination was through the Gents?

The most complicated thing in NUS is finding the right building. Not finding a room once you’ve got the right building.

Hmm, I wonder which way to the PREVIOuS Workshop? We need some signs…

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