Stop the confusion caused by the “⇧” arrow meaning both “up” and “forwards”! Adopt these new symbols to usher in a new era of navigational prosperity!

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The Issue:

Sometimes, navigation signs need to distinguish between “forward” (usually indicated by a “⇧” symbol) and “up” (on a higher floor). Unfortunately up is frequently represented by the same symbol (Figure 1)!

Fig. 1: Is “arrivals” forwards, or up? And if you go down a flight of stairs, will take end up in the baggage claim, or the snake pit? Impossible to say.

This navigation issue is frequently observed in airports and multi-level stores.

Proposal:

The solution is simple: instead of using a “plain” arrow for everything, just use different symbols for up / forward and down / backward (Figure 2).

Fig. 2: These alternative symbols allow us to distinguish between “forwards” and “up.”

The only downside is that people would need to get used to these new symbols: otherwise, they’re just another perplexing symbol.

A Practical Alternative:

As an alternative to the symbols shown in Figure 2, we could also use the following arrows that are already available in the Unicode spec (and thus are available on computers right now):

  • Up: ↟ (double arrow)
  • Forward: ⇡ (as a mnemonic, the dots are footsteps)
  • Down: ↡ (double arrow)
  • Backward: ⇣ (as a mnemonic, the dots are footsteps)

PROS: Reduces confusion when navigating airports and department stores.

CONS: Increases confusion by adding new meanings to subtle variants of the “arrow” symbol.