Week 1B Wayfinding

09/01/2016

Today we were to make wayfinding maps for the exercise we did in the previous class in order to get a better sense of direction. From top to bottom they are: entrance A to Roddy 267, entrance B to Roddy 267, and entrance A to Roddy 267 in only a wheelchair.

IMG_3328

IMG_3327

IMG_3325

Week 1A

08/30/2016

Today was our introduction to information design. Our first assignment was to find a location on campus and try to have someone else find the room using what ever directional information the building that the room resides in provides. We were to enter from two entrances and critique the directional information as we try to find these rooms. When searching we needed to decide what was helping us, what wasn’t helping us, and what could be done better.

The room I was in charge of finding was Roddy 267. I decided to enter Roddy through the entrance next to the greenhouse. We will call this entrance A. I decided to head straight  through the doors in the lobby which lead me to a hallway. The first thing I noticed was a poorly constructed paper sign taped to the wall pointing to 100 level rooms. I knew I needed to find a staircase so I decided to turn around the corner to the left instead of the right, which leads down the hall, in order to find a better map. This lead to a community board with a small paper map dangling from a single nail which helped me find a staircase. I feel like this board should have been right in front of your face as soon as you open the lobby doors, like where the poorly constructed sign from earlier was. I hastily read the map and then remembered that there was a staircase in the lobby. So I turned around to the lobby and went up the stairs that I was to dumb to use when I first walked in. I guess that’s my own fault, as soon as I walked out of the lobby I knew I wasn’t on the right floor and I certainly didn’t forget or miss the staircase. When I got to the second floor the first thing I noticed was a better map right in front of you when you walk into the second floor. Again this is something that floor 1 could have really used. After reading the map I realized I was almost their according to the you are here spot on the map. All I would need to do is go right to the end of the hall, make a left and keep going until the end of the next hall and make another left and about 3 rooms down this section of the hall the room was on my left. It was apparently a dark room. On my way there, I noticed the room numbering continue to go up for the most part but I couldn’t help but notice the weird order the rooms were numbered. For example, I would pass room 665 before passing 661 and 662 which might frustrate people. I actually witnessed someone lose their way in the building because the numbering just wasn’t perfect.

Entrance B was the chemistry entrance seeing as the word chemistry was chiseled into the wall above the doorway. Right away I noticed a problem; the bright orange sign on the door was giving directions to rooms in Caputo. Caputo and Roddy are part of the same building. To newcomers this must be a directional nightmare. When I got into the building I kept going straight until I noticed signs pointing me towards certain rooms. To the left was 213-221 and to the right was 222-244. I went right because I needed to find 267 so I searched for higher 200 level room numbers. My instincts were right this time as continuing in that direction lead me to the area where the staircase at entrance A let off so I grew familiar with the area and found 267 again. Along the way their was maps posted to the walls but they all only contained rooms from the 200’s to the 240’s and I needed 260’s. I think it had something to do with the cutoff line between Caputo and Roddy, but that shouldn’t matter if you want to provide the best information. The map should be complete.

I was asked to think like a handicapped person during the search. Since you start out on the same floor and there are no steps as far as I can remember, from entrance B to 267 shouldn’t be too difficult for handicapped people to access. The only elevator I noticed was to the left of the staircase in the lobby of entrance A which isn’t too bad if you’re trying to just find 267 and the entrance and exit.