Week 10

We were to try out 3 free design programs. The 3 I picked were Canva, easel.ly, and piktochart.

Canva allows you to create many things like info graphics and posters and many more. It has many free layouts, elements, text headers, and background patterns ready for anyone to use. You can also upload your own content to be added to any project. Unfortunately, I think the interface isn’t the best as the menu takes up half the screen leaving you less work space. I also found it a little hard to create create my own content because it was less of a development tool as much as a layout tool. Also, some of the shortcuts that everyone knows like control c to copy and control v to paste do not work on this program. When searching for a copy button, I accidentally copied the page instead of just the element I needed. Anyways I made a cover sheet which is also my first page using an existing layout and a cropped image from shutterstock.com.

field-hockey

 

Easel.ly is similar to canva but seems strictly focused on info graphics leaving out many options. I thought this program was much better because I felt it made more sense. The traditional shortcuts worked and the interface was much better and easier to understand. The interface also didn’t take up half the screen. Also, you can add more media like videos. One issue I had because I’m used to Illustrator was that holding shift while nudging with the arrow keys doesn’t move elements any faster, which I do a lot. It was also hard for my computer to handle which made my computer lag a lot but I don’t know if that’s easel.ly’s fault or if it’s just my computer. I made the last page by experimenting with an existing layout.

 

Piktochart was very much like easel.ly but with the options of canva. I think it might be a little better than easel.ly, at least when it comes to interface because the editing tools are very noticeable and change depending on the selected object. You can even add more media like maps and chats as well as video. Unfortunately, like the other programs you still have to make most objects with another program and upload them. There is an option to use geometric shapes, but there is no free transform tools so you are limited on your editing abilities. This too made my computer lag. I made part 1 and 2 of my presentation using existing layouts but the clock graph was made in figma.

 

Week 3Wayfinding Survey

We were to take photos of wayfinding signs around the science buildings; Caputo, Roddy, and Brossman. The photos contain examples of both good and bad wayfinding signage. Some good examples of signage I found was easily noticeable signs for handicapped access, and some clearly marked fire escapes. Some bad examples were signs with no information, major signage that is often blocked by trees, dirty signs that are hard to read, and paper signage posted poorly to the wall.

Then we were to make a title page describing our process. Then we needed to make a collage of the photos taken. These can be seen here:

wayfinding-photos

Then after researching the signage and getting a better understanding of just how bad the wayfinding signage can possibly be, we were to make a survey. This survey was to question people and their understanding of wayfinding. Because of this, I had my survey based around how confident the person being tested felt traversing the science center. I chose to focus on a freshman demographic because I felt that freshmen would have the most trouble traversing the campus seeing how it’s new territory that they must spend the next couple of years getting used to. Here is my survey:

survey

I tried to be balanced with my survey; I asked 2 males, 2 females, and a handicapped male to take the survey. The survey was on a scale from 1-5 with 5 being confident in there choice and 1 being unsure. I left space so I could take notes on their decision making.

The first female student said she didn’t know how to get to the science center too well because she didn’t have any science classes yet, but she did have a map to help her. She was pretty unsure about questions 2 and 3 but she knew not to go near any elevators for question 4. She was on the fence for question 5 but she felt like it would definitely be more difficult for her if she were handicapped. Then she said that she thinks that if a person has bee handicapped for a long time that they are probably used to the added difficulty.

The next was a first semester, freshman male. He sad that he hasn’t had to take a science class quite yet. He said he hasn’t even been in that direction of campus which I found pretty surprising. He didn’t really seem to want to go anywhere he didn’t need to, so since he had classes on the other side of campus he never really went to the science center. He was unanimously unsure for all the questions.

The next person was a female science major. She was pretty confident across all the questions. The only question that she had the smallest of doubt was on question 2 which is honestly a little bit of a trick question. I added that question to see if these students are actually paying attention to just how abysmal the wayfinding can be in the science center.

The next person I surveyed was a male science major. He was slightly less confident than the previous person, but he did catch on to the weird fact that half of Roddy is Caputo. Because of the science he focused on, he didn’t have to enter Brossman hall quite yet, so he didn’t exactly where this building was but he was pretty close.

The next was a handicapped male. He knew exactly where the science center was. He knew there was something wrong with Caputo and Roddy but not exactly. He wasn’t absolutely sure where Brossman hall was but he was actually really close. He had know idea about  escaping the center if there was a fire which worried him actually. He was pretty confident about finding his way through the center even though he was handicapped. He said it is a struggle but it’s something he always had to deal with so he was used to it.

 

3A Revised Wayfinding Singage

ben-hostetter-project2-redone-4pm

Week 2 Public Transportation.

09/09/16

Today I was to do a wayfinding experiment. I was to take any form of public transportation to a nearby landmark. I decided to do this right after work since there is a bus stop right near work and the bus arrives sometime shortly after my shift ends on Fridays. Before taking the bus I took advantage of the bus schedule that my work provides to any customer for free. But first I had to search the bus schedule to find where the bus would take me, when exactly it will arrive, how long the journey would be.

The bus schedule was actually a little hard for me to read but that’s because I wasn’t focusing. When I calmed down and tried to focus, I actually found the schedule to be quite helpful and detailed. It had the route outlined, the stops numbered, and landmarks pointed out. It also had a detailed list of approximate times the bus would arrive at each destination. From all of this I gathered that I would be taking the number 12 bus, from Wrightsville, where my place of work is, to the York mall, the landmark I chose to go to. The bus would arrive to pick me up at 5:24 and would arrive at the mall around 5:43. Now I just needed to ride the bus.

I’m so glade that already knew that there was a bus stop by work because the signage that would usually tell people this was not good at all. It was a small metal poster, looked roughly 8.5 x 11, that was posted to a nearby telephone pole. The signage was red and black against a brown, wood pole making this hard to read. Also the sign reads, “RebbitTransit” which is the name of the public transportation service but nowhere did the signage say it was a bus stop. You would have to know ahead of time, or otherwise assume from the word transit, that it was a public transportation service. I really don’t remember seeing much improvement in the signage during my journey; they were all pretty similar except for maybe a bench hear and their but overall no improvement.

The journey wasn’t that bad. My trip had 3 stops after I got on; one in Hallam, one in York, and finally the York Mall. It was basically one long strait line until the second stop. After that there was about 6 small turns until my destination and on the return trip they skipped a lot of turns because it was the last route of the day and they skip the stop in York at that time.

So after all of that the trip wasn’t too bad. They wayfinding signage on the streets really needs work but the text in the bus schedule is actually okay. It may of had some visual hierarchy problems that stressed me out at first but when you calm down and focus the text is pretty useful.