Pub Door Sign

PROBLEM:

This is the door leading from inside the Vanderbilt Pub to the porch outside.  Surprisingly, the side of the door on the right in the picture is always locked.  The white square seen in this picture is a sign saying "please...use other door."  The same sign is on the other side of the door, but it is even less visible because the lighting is worse inside than out.  Most people instinctively reach for the the right side of the door because they are right handed, and many times food trays are dropped, or at the least, students are frustrated because the door they first tried was locked for some reason.  This display violates many of the display rules I've learned in class.  First in foremost it is not conspicuous or legible whatsoever. The fact that the words can't even be read in this picture is evidence enough.  Also, this sign doesn't consider the idea of top-down processing.  People expect this right side to be the door to use, so the strength of the intended signal needs to be increased.

SOLUTION:


First, to combat the issue of visibility, this sign needs to be made bigger.  Also, black stands out against white, but it doesn't catch the eye at all.  A color such as red should be used to get the attention, and then instead of italicizing "please," and thus putting emphasis on that word, "other" should be bolded and underlined since that is the primary signal being sent.  This considers the idea of top-down processing.  With these two simple steps, the problem of slamming into a locked door, spilling food everywhere could be avoided.