A city is like a computer program – special care has to be taken to make things as easy as possible for new users. The new signage on the South Quays at Talbot Bridge in Dublin is a step towards making Dublin easy for visitors to get around.

This is a completely new type of sign for Dublin, and it has a number of good features. There are clear directions to common tourist destinations in Dublin. It isn’t festooned with advertisements. It is highly graffiti-proof. Best of all, it isn’t supposed to look twee and olde-worlde.

This is a completely new type of sign for Dublin, and it has a number of good features. There are clear directions to common tourist destinations in Dublin. It isn’t festooned with advertisements. It is highly graffiti-proof. Best of all, it isn’t supposed to look twee and olde-worlde.

It has two maps on it, and it is worth taking a closer look at them both. (click on the map to see it in a larger, slightly more readable scale).

The bottom map is (obviously) a map of the immediate area. The top map shows the wider context. There are a number of good things about this arrangement.

– It gives a scale (I find that a lot of tourist maps give you absolutely no sense of how great the distances are. This can result in some unexpectedly long walks if you don’t know the area.)

– the maps aren’t overly detailed. It shows the main places a tourist might want to go, and is easily legible.

– it shows where you are, so that you can find yourself on the map. There are some pretty obvious landmarks nearby (the river and the bridge) to help you orient yourself.

While all this is good, there are also some ways in which it could be improved. For example:

– It’s a pity the distances aren’t marked in metres as well as in minutes. ’10 minutes walk’ is a pretty subjective measure.

– Overground trains and trams aren’t marked on the map (other than the stations), even though these are obvious, permanent landmarks that visitors could use to orient themselves.

– Some areas of the map are very vague. For example, the dotted-line for Grafton St. is the wrong way around. Stepen’s Green, one of the major centres of the city isn’t mentioned at all. Nor is Ballsbridge, where many of the hotels are located, even though it is within the area of the map. Attractions like Collin’s Barracks (a large museum) and the Phoenix Park (Europe’s largest urban park, as it happens) are also absent.

– If you measure up, the ‘scales’ on the two maps appear to be inconsistent, for no good reason.

– The issue of orientation of the map could be handled a little better. There are two ways this could be done. ‘North’ could be clearly marked. Also, the map could be drawn to follow the convention that what appears in front of you appears at the top of the map, and what is behind you appears behind.

– The upper map would be clearer to people with poor sight (and people taking photographs) if it were drawn with a dark colour on a light foreground. Black-and-white would be best.

Still and all, there are more good things about the sign than there are bad things. It’s definitely a big improvement on what was there before. Hopefully this is a sign that the authorities are beginning to take signage and directions seriously in Dublin. A world-class signage system for a world-class city, that’s what I say.