We have only just finished working on the bid phase of a PPP (Public Private Partnership – WikiPedia),  developing the wayshowing strategy for a large hospital and are already on to the next one.

PPP’s are challenging and exciting at the same time; challenging because the limited time that the team has to develop the design concepts, and exciting because the architects, landscape designers, interior designers and us wayshowing strategists, work very closely together.

A quality wayshowing system is a critical component of any complex built environment.

It employs established theories of human cognition and human factors research, to deliver information in a way that allow humans to intuitively and/or automatically navigate a complex environment.  It minimises the amount of time, attention, and energy a person spends finding their way to a destination.

Wayshowing strategists work with a number of built-form design disciplines from project inception through to implementation, review, and on going maintenance, to deliver buildings and environments that exploit innate human behavioural traits in order to achieve business or social outcomes.

Patients, visitors, educators, researchers, medical staff, administrators, retailers, delivery services, and the diverse surrounding community all have substantially different navigational needs. Additionally, within each user group, individuals use different methods of transport.

A successful wayshowing strategy ensures quality of service by carefully considering the individual needs of each type of user group, as well as the needs of the facility as a cohesive system. It requires a holistic approach, both geospatially and operationally.  To ensure quality and cost effectiveness, it is important that a wayshowing strategy develops in parallel with a hospital at all phases of development.

It is also important that the planning of the wayshowing system be front loaded at the higher conceptual levels or project development.  Doing so ensures consistency in the overall wayshowing strategy, which is paramount to a successful wayshowing system.  Front loading strategy also prevents the trickle down of wayshowing system defects that would require post design, post construction documentation, or post construction remediation.  Correction of such defects can be extremely costly and reduce the overall performance of the wayshowing system.

ID/Lab draws on its experience-based knowledge and current scientifically based research to employ a best practice wayfinding/wayshowing strategy. We utilise that knowledge and the research findings to assist architectural, interior, graphics, and urban designers with the development of both implicit and explicit environmental stimuli.

Source: www.opentype.info/blog

We found this really interesting article on the shapes and layouts of road signs on Ralf Hermanns’ OpenType info blog.

Dr. Raoul Bell conducted a study in which he found that the type of sign significantly influences the time we need to find the target. When all information was presented on one sign and without any separation, the targets could be found much faster. Bell argues that we perceive these objects as groups and only one group can have our attention at a time.

When the information is split into several groups we need to shift our attention from one group to the next, and therefore need more time to perform this task.

It is interesting to see how Australian road signage complies with this paradigm:

ID/Lab mostly applies the following principles to directional signage, which is based on direction & grouping:

The layout and order in which the information on a sign is listed has a significant effect on how quickly people can find the information they need.
People like to be able to read signs quickly, and most people will only give a couple of seconds to find the information. As a result, most directional signs should have limited information.

On larger directional signs, lines sharing a common direction should be grouped together. They become easier to scan and reduce the number of arrows required, enhancing clarity. Signs like directories should be arranged in alphabetical order, to avoid visitors having to read every line to find their department.

Grouping Messages Vertically:
Arrows are linked to the first line of message groupings which are then ranged left or right according to the direction indicated by the arrow.
Arrows to direct straight ahead normally appear on the left except when indicating a route with a bias to the right.

Messages ranged left are grouped above messages ranged right in the order shown below. Where space is restricted, a panel with all ranged left messages can be placed alongside a panel of all ranged right messages.

Coles is the second largest supermarket chain in Australia. It has over 740 stores nationally and over 100,000 employees.

Their head office in Tooronga, Melbourne, has been going through an extensive make-over in the last 18 months; from a rabbit warren (affectionately named Starship Enterprise, because of its size and white shiny exterior), to open plan offices.

The main reason for the change was to encourage employees to communicate more and better with each other. Where individuals would pick up the phone to talk to a colleague or invite them to a ‘formal’ meeting, Coles saw benefits in creating an environment that encourages staff to ‘just walk over’ to someones desk, and have more informal and impromptu meetings.

Melbourne architects, Woods Bagot, did a great job opening up the building, but Coles found that navigation was still too difficult, with the result that staff still did not get of their chair enough! ID/Lab was asked to develop a navigation and placemaking strategy to ‘improve communication’ and ‘get staff to utilise it to it’s fullest potential – actively & easily engaging through the building’.

Critical to any solution is an understanding of how the current environment is perceived and used, and we issued a 3minute (yes-no answer) online survey for all staff, held focus group interviews and observational surveys to fully understand the building navigation and typical paths of travel.

The Coles Support Centre is inherently complex. The building is essentially several, linked buildings. The floor plates on each level have significantly different configurations and the work places are configured in a grid layout, with ‘streets’ cutting diagonally through the grid. Some of the results from the focus groups and surveys were that very few staff were able to create an accurate cognitive map of their workplace, and that the bad navigation created significant staff down-time, missed or late meetings, and an overall feeling of ‘not belonging’ and ‘feeling isolated’.

We have developed a strategy that addresses the issues found in the research stage, and are developing design guidelines for an holistic information system, which will address the current inconsistencies and provide a clearly comprehensible set of navigation tools. As soon as it has been implemented, we will show you the results!

Source: www.designswan.com

Design Swan discussed 8 Creative Metro Map themed designs on it’s blog. Who created them, and what was the idea behind it’s creation? We thought we could contribute to the subject by showing you a 9th design:

It’s ID/Lab’s website intro page which has indeed been based on the famous metro map. It goes well with what we do: Wayfinding/Wayshowing.

When we started the development of our website design, we set out to make the ease of navigation stand out…..  We thought it was important that you understand where you are at every step of the way, and can easily jump from one ‘destination’ to another.  You can choose between the “Projects”, “What we do” or “Profile” line. When you click on a project or subject name the coloured line moves with you to your chosen ID/Lab destination!

On the “project” line, once you have selected your destination, the sub-stations show-up:

Have a look, enjoy the ride and have a safe trip!

Last month ANZ (the fourth largest bank in Australia, with operations throughout Australia and New Zealand, and twenty-five other countries) opened officially its new global HQ in Docklands, Melbourne. ID/Lab, in collaboration with Fabio Ongerato and Hassell Architects, developed a wayshowing strategy for this building. When all staff have moved in, it will house 6500 people, and with that becomes the largest office building in Australia.

Only a couple of more days and it is Christmas. 2009 is at its end and 2010 is pushing to start. And so are we!

All of us at ID/Lab, wish you a great X-Mas and a Prosperous New Year. We hope you will visit our blog again in 2010!

By Yvonne Verheem

Healthcare Design Magazine in the USA quoted some of the work ID/Lab performed for the “Specialist Clinics Wayfinding Guidelines, The Outpatient Journey”, for the Department of Human Services Victoria. It was a joint project with Growth Solutions in Melbourne.

The article on the web/blog talks about wayfinding in healthcare facilities.

www.healthcaredesignmagazine.com

We have moved!

On 1 October ID/Lab moved to its new premises in the Docklands area. You can find us now in the Life.Lab building, on the corner Latrobe Street and Harbour Esplanade. It’s next to the Port 1010 building and only minutes away from the Etihad Stadium and Southern Cross train station. But more importantly: It’s close to most of our customers in the CBD. We are excited about our new spot! It means our customers can drop-in at our office more easily and vice versa. And we have a better excuse to go ‘for coffee’!

Our new address is: 402A /198 Harbour Esplanade, Docklands, VIC 3008.

Our phone number stays the same: 03 8682 9813

The Life.Lab building has been designed by award winning architects Moull Murray creating an impressive visual statement in Docklands, Melbourne.

Its location on Harbour Esplanade with direct views to Victoria Harbour gives the building a prime waterfront location, with public transport at the front door, the building will help us project an image of ‘business on the move’. The internal areas create a vibrant community where we can use the latest technology, including state of the art meeting rooms and presentation facilities.