Wayfinding

wayfinding wayfinding wayfinding

veronica veronica villhard villhard

table of contents part one - understanding 4

day one: an introduction to wayfinding

7 the image of the city 8 design moves 10 TED: tim brown 13

coca wayfinding blog

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ethnography

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verplank - interaction design sketchbook 18-19 part two - implementing 20 the situation: WATSON 23 exploration 24

documentation: testing solution one

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documentation: restarting

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final

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thoughts while finding the way

30 team 31

part one:

“Wayfinding design is a human-centered approach that builds on the findings of research in cognition and environmental psychology to design built spaces and products that facilitate the movement of people through urban settings and individual buildings.�

-Blackboard

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understanding

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day one: an introduction to wayfinding The day the cardboard chairs ended, the way of the path was introduced. what is wayfinding?

It encompasses the information-gathering and decision-making processes people use to orient themselves and navigate through space.

Simply put, how people get from one location A

B to another.

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the image of the city

Kevin Lynch highlighted the 5 main elements of a city: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. paths are the streets, walkways, transit lines, canals, etc along which the observer moves. Edges are the liner elements that may be in a form which can not be passed and is very visually prominent like a river. Districts are the labels for areas in which the observer can mentally go inside of and find common characters. Nodes are the places where the observe must make a decision one way or another. Landmarks are external sites which help the observer orient themselves.

I had not thought of nodes before this reading and learned that even if we are not designing signage through a city, we can still lean from this larger example.

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“Such group images are necessary if an individual is to cooperate with his fellows. Each individual picture is unique, with some content that is rarely or never communicated, yet it approximates the public image, which in different environments is more or less compelling, more or less embracing.” ~ KEVIN LYNCH, “The City Image and its Elements”

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design moves

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“Design envisions the future by taking a felt need or problem or what is a vague and often abstract idea and making it tangible—making it exist in the world so that the various stakeholders in the idea can imagine together, socially and interactively, what “it” might be like.” ~ SHARON HELMER POGGENPOHL, “Design moves”

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“Perhaps if we focus less on the object and more on Design Thinking, as an approach, we actually might see the result in a bigger impact.� ~ TIM BROWN,

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tim brown at TED

I learned that instead of starting with technology, it is important to start with people and culture and by understanding the need, the best result can be achieved. Making and testing while thinking, rather than theorizing and then making the final product in the end.

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COCA BUILDING WAYFINDING O N L I N E W O R K B O O K F O R E L I Z A B E T H D Y M O C K , VA N E S S A S AY W E L L , B O N I M I C S T U D E R , S E U N G H E E H O N G

This blog post become my group’s best reference for this project. Everything in bullet points was basically an outline (if followed) on how to successfully lead someone in the right direction with effectively designed signs. The ideas I will most apply to my wayfinding assignment from all of the categories are as follows: Orientation: “On each level, provide a map of that level with room numbers and tenants identified. Orient the map with the floor plan and include key markers for the level.” Also, including a talking sign sounds kind of fun... Directional Information: Design all routes to destinations so they are usable by all people. Destination Information: Include floor #s and Room identifiers (like catchy names).

Situation and Object Identification: Standardize colors for specific purposes. Very helpful post.

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ethnography

The beautifully designed “An Ethnography Primer” document was about how “ethnography informs design by revealing a deep understanding of people and how they make sense of their world.” The cheesily designed “Steps in the Ethnographic Process” was another step-by-step document highlighting the tips and tricks of understanding and apply ethnographic information to a design. There was a 9 step program in the ethnographic process, 8 steps and things to look for when starting off, and 3 tips and tricks in your discovery process.

Observe, conversate, and capture the data! Get out there and learn all there is to learn about the space and then create, create, create, and test. I felt like the document was constantly trying to get me super excited about discovery and design, and I think it kind of worked...

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“A designer should care about ethnography because it can help produce more compelling, innovative design that really connects with users—in a way that creates delight.” ~ DARREL RHEA, design research consultant

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verplank

The three main points of this document were this: “How do you do? How do you feel? How do you know?� Basically asking how you effect the world as a human, how you collect data and get feedback, and how to create a path or map to guide someone moment by moment. Interaction design has many steps and processes, as articulated by Bill Verplank. Steps for who, how, and in what context interaction is aimed at.

I think this document would have been more effective in video form. There is a lot of information to take in and Bill Verplank is very detailed in every step he takes. This document was very similar to the one before. I recognized the designer’s process for interaction design of finding the error or problem, then finding a metaphor that connects the motivation to the end goal, develop scenarios, and then step-by-step come to the decision of what kind of display is needed, what the control are, and how to arrange them.

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interaction design sketchbook

The Interaction Design Sketchbook by Bill Verplank was split up into 4 sections of Sketching, Interaction, Design, and Paradigms about why they are all important to Interaction design. As Verplank started with Sketching, we are more than animals. Design is what people do, but it is changing. Craft and Design are different, but we, as humans, have both. Sketching is a great way to visualize an idea and share with others. McKin recommends an Express, Test, and Cycle phase cycle to follow to insure optimal exploration of an idea. The second section, Interaction, began with industrial and interaction design’s origin. Industrial design was born in the 20th century with the invention of plastic, a maluable, can-take-any-shape material. Interaction Design came from the 21st century and it concerns design for people and how they INTERACT with an object/software/situation. DO. FEEL. KNOW, and Lynch’s Elements: Landmark, District, Edge (between districts), Path or Node (where paths intersect). The third section focused on Design. There are 8 things to keep in mind: the four M’s: motivations, meanings, modes, and mappings. And then the other four objects with no fun memorization tactics: observation, invention, engineering, and appearance. Verplak’s final section, section four, was about Paradigms. A paradigm, in his explanation, is giving a name to something to make it more easily relatable through the use of metaphors and different approaches. He ended with the Piaget’s three stages of learning: Enactive (instinct), Iconic (mistaken), and Symbolic (attached images).

This document was interesting but it was certainly not the kind of sketchbook I was hoping for (where were all of the sketchheeessss). However and none-the-less, Verplank’s in-depth look at the process of designing and, specifically, designing processes for people to interact with was interesting and filled with incite from the past. I thought it was interesting to learn how Industrial design was born from

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part two:

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implementation

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watson library

As the oldest and largest library on the KU campus, Watson is know for it’s labrynth like qualities. Much of the confusion towards getting around Watson reside in the poor signage and half floors. These half floors house the stacks in the west, east, and center of the building. Watson is a popular spot for all kinds of studying, meeting for group projects, and doing research. Watson has a multitude of different varieties of study spaces in the west, east, and center stacks as well as on all 5 floors of the library, but the signage is not quite clear as to where best to begin when going on a study-space adventure. The dark blue signs blend together, the font is un-interesting, and the library has to put the front desk’s number in the stacks for the people who get lost in there every day.

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exploration

Activity: What is the destination? watson library

Environment: Where is your space? main entrance to east, center, and west stacks

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ndividual: Who will be using the space? students, librarians, people looking to do research

Object: What is in the space? books and study spaces

Understanding: Will users be able to observe read, learn and comprehend your wayfinding system?

I believe they were able to observe, read, and learn from my signs. However, I think it may be difficult to know what the “center” or “west” (etc.) signs are leading you to. I wish we had made a small map/tryptic for the main entrance which would coordinate with the signs, but give strangers to Watson a fighting chance to see something cool and maybe develop a habit of coming to Watson.

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documentation: solution one

did not go over well with our friend, the librarian. too in-your-face distracting over-whelming

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WEST

CENTER

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EAST

CENTER

WEST

documentation: restarting

Color choice, how to communicate the directions, and condensing were the challenges we faced at this point. We ended up choosing one color and printing 4 signs to guide people to the East, Center, and West stacks. This idea was a complete 180 from our original, busy idea and design. We decided to go minimal/simple, suggestion style. The stacks have a certain quirky, adventure like feeling and design about them and one of the best parts about them are exploring the rows upon rows of books and coming to a staircase you never knew existed. As our librarian contact said, as long as people know what floor they were on when they first got to the stacks, they can figure out the rest of it easily enough. We did not want to take away from the novelty of discovery within the space, as well. (in respect of our original idea)

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final

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my thoughts while finding the way

I’ll admit it. This project took a lot out of me and challenged what I knew about design, research, teamwork, and time-management. From the beginning, there was a tension in my group’s dynamic and as the project progressed I became more and more negative between struggling with finding an idea worth pursuing, feeling like my group relied heavily on me, and putting forth the majority of work. The lack of time management and motivation I received from my group discouraged me and I felt like no matter what we were doing, it was not good enough or professional enough and that we were never functioning well as a team, even though we did not do nearly as bad as I was imagining. I was definitely my own worst critic throughout the project. Now when time for the presentation came up, Xiner was nervous out of her mind and about ready to melt into the wall and Katie was nervous, especially because the presentation she was supposed to put together the night prior, was non-existent. Being that entirety of my group was struggling to function with how nervous they were, I had to take charge, throw together a power point before it was our turn to present and try to keep calm enough to pull this off. It took us very much by surprise when we received so much positive feedback... I do agree that we could have pushed our final idea further, but with the time we had after restarting, I suppose we did not do too bad.

If I have learned anything throughout this process, it is to be more confident in what I am creating, roll with the punches (cliche, but true), and that the first idea may not always be the best or final idea. The presentation of our project completely changed

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team

Katie, Xiner, and Veronica: the post-it note crew. We thought and we made; we researched and we strayed. Through constant idea changes, conflicting styles, and launguage barriers, we managed to finish the project, though it never felt like we would see the end of this project... and yet here we are. Glad it happened, happy it’s over.

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If you don’t get lost, there’s a chance you may never be found. ~Author Unknown