If you walk south on John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Jersey City between Zabriskie and Hutton Streets, you will encounter the sign above, Side A.

If you follow the directions, turning left at the next corner, you’ll be on Hutton Street, the street on which the Hutton is located. (Clever, isn’t it?)

But before you do that, just walk past the sign and turn around. Here’s the B side.

Sign for the Hutton that says "next right"

Do you see why these directions won’t work? If you’re spatially challenged as I am, this map may help.

map showing the relationship of the sign to the Hutton

If you are heading south and turn left, you’ll be on Hutton Street and arrive safely at the Hutton.

If you are heading north and turn right, you’ll be on Zabriskie Street. You can continue for blocks wondering where they hid the restaurant or what you did wrong.

This kind of thing has happened to all of us: unintended consequences of a great idea gone only slightly awry.

Unfortunately, the amount of awry-ness it takes to alienate potential customers is impossibly small.

Signs that work one way but not the other are surprisingly common. If you want to re-use last year’s banners and directional signs, check whether the arrows point in the right direction for this year’s venue and setup!

Here are some questions you can ask to avoid unintended consequences:

  • Can someone who doesn’t already know how to do it follow your written directions? Did you leave out any “obvious” steps?
  • Is what you’re asking people to do really possible? Does the web form work? Who answers that phone number?
  • Has the button that is supposed to be “at right” fallen so that users have to scroll down to click it?
  • Does your flyer, brochure, or other printed piece include links like yourdomain.org/appointments/07fyd88% that no one can successfully enter into the browser bar?

The best way to avoid unintended consequences is to invite a guinea pig—er, trusted colleague or friend—to try it out for you. If you can’t get anyone, pretend to be a stranger yourself.

Better yet, hire a professional. Oh, all right, I really mean “hire me.” Because, as we all know, if it can go wrong, it will.