Today in "unhelpful staff products:"
What is this slide telling me? What do the letters mean? Does E mean "Everyone can go there?" or maybe "Eek! Stay away?" Something else? Is O indicative of "OMG no don't go there!?" Does C mean "come on in?" Or maybe it's "can't go there." And some countries are both C and E. "Can't escape?" IDK. Those letters only appear on that slide in the deck and aren't explained anywhere else.
What do the colors on the countries mean? there are two shades on the countries--red, and orange with white stripes. But there are 6+ colors in the map legend.
There are two shades in do not travel /restricted. OK. But there are three different shades in the legend for that header. What does yellow for Israel and Pakistan mean?
And what is a gray country? If Saudi Arabia is "do not travel," why isn't it red in the map? Or is that country suddenly not part of CENTCOM anymore so we DGAF?
If I'm looking at this and trying to plan for a trip, can I go to say Israel? I don't know. It's yellow, which means it's not "do not travel" or "restricted" (I guess?) but what does "restricted" even mean? What does "reconsider travel" mean? OK I've reconsidered. can I go now?
Folks, if you're making staff products, don't make them like this. Don't have marks (letters, in this case) that are not explained if they are not commonly understood, and make sure your products are least internally consistent (e.g. Saudi Arabia).
This is the worst type of product: not only is it not useful to decision makers, it also takes more time to try to interpret and have to follow up with the producers with questions. This kind of thing makes everyone's life harder and leaves a lot of room for people to get into trouble for misinterpretation.
...and this map appears to indicate that it's OK to go to Pakistan but not Egypt (which is black, which means restricted) LOL OK...
What is this slide telling me? What do the letters mean? Does E mean "Everyone can go there?" or maybe "Eek! Stay away?" Something else? Is O indicative of "OMG no don't go there!?" Does C mean "come on in?" Or maybe it's "can't go there." And some countries are both C and E. "Can't escape?" IDK. Those letters only appear on that slide in the deck and aren't explained anywhere else.
What do the colors on the countries mean? there are two shades on the countries--red, and orange with white stripes. But there are 6+ colors in the map legend.
There are two shades in do not travel /restricted. OK. But there are three different shades in the legend for that header. What does yellow for Israel and Pakistan mean?
And what is a gray country? If Saudi Arabia is "do not travel," why isn't it red in the map? Or is that country suddenly not part of CENTCOM anymore so we DGAF?
If I'm looking at this and trying to plan for a trip, can I go to say Israel? I don't know. It's yellow, which means it's not "do not travel" or "restricted" (I guess?) but what does "restricted" even mean? What does "reconsider travel" mean? OK I've reconsidered. can I go now?
Folks, if you're making staff products, don't make them like this. Don't have marks (letters, in this case) that are not explained if they are not commonly understood, and make sure your products are least internally consistent (e.g. Saudi Arabia).
This is the worst type of product: not only is it not useful to decision makers, it also takes more time to try to interpret and have to follow up with the producers with questions. This kind of thing makes everyone's life harder and leaves a lot of room for people to get into trouble for misinterpretation.
...and this map appears to indicate that it's OK to go to Pakistan but not Egypt (which is black, which means restricted) LOL OK...
