Step-by-Step (wayfinding design team)

Questions

• What is the breakdown of how people arrive at Hughes Spalding? (car, MARTA, foot, etc)
• What percentage of the HS population has consistent access to internet?
• What is the percentage breakdown of languages? How many people take advantage of the translator services?
• If no access to internet, how do the patients get directions to HS?
• What do most patients come in for? What are the typical routes/places that patients go?

Action Items

• Thursday presentation: 5 slides; 8 mins, 2 mins for questions; sharp about the PROBLEMS
• Intensive research over the next week or so--so we can narrow it down and decide on a solution
• Need to decide if we want to set up a strategy or a more involved solution

Things to Check Into

• "Wayfinding" by Passini (graphic devices)
• "Design that Cares" by Carpman
• Dissertation by Haq (wayfinding at Emory, CLH, and Grady)
• "The Visual Display of Quantitative Info" by Tufte
• Interface (hospital signage company in Atlanta)

Major Problems at HS

• Lack of signage and maps en route to Hughes Spalding (from all modes of transportation)
• Even when signs and maps existed, they weren't multilingual or graphical
• We only knew the HS was associated with Grady, so we went there--but HS is now a part of CHOA, so people need to associate it with CHOA mainly.
• Asking security guards is not an effective way to find your way--because they aren't trained, it wastes their time, it's not unreliable, and they usually aren't multilingual.
• Parking signs were confusing and directions to the actual hospital are not sufficient for finding parking.
• Overflow parking is poorly managed and not always guaranteed.
• No really big wayfinding problems inside the existing hospital, but there may be issues that arise when the new hospital is built.

Chatting with Ellen, Craig & David

• External signage stuff is good, but it's not the total solution.
• Wayfinding can have different scale and different boundaries.
• How do you figure out how to prevent future problems at the new building?
• Can you identify wayfinding problems in other children's hospitals and then compare them to how the new HS building will be designed?
• Analysis of the new floorplan and talk to virtual reality group to compare other hospitals' floor plans with the new one at HS (what does and doesn't work)
• Designing an interface (adults vs. kids) that could be adaptable to other locations, etc
• Marianna's senior design project: shortest routes
• Identify what the main processes are at HS, so we can decide where they will need to go
• Sequence of events--how do you keep track of where you are and how to find your way back?
• Training people to give clear wayfinding instructions--scripts for security guards, distributed by HS, come up with common nomenclature
• Relatively subtle issues about wayfinding are really a big deal, but we just don't realize them yet (visual access, floor plans, etc)
• Best Practices idea: clear but fun
• Remember to focus on the WAY BACK, not just getting there
• Mock up of our project as a demo for the final presentation in Dec.
• Cognitive mapping and how clarity of them can impact our navigation
• Showing people a map of a setting helps to develop a cognitive map, so how can we help them develop these cognitive maps
• Pick where you are, pick where you're going (BMI pie-chart)
• Interesting ideas to Craig:

    -- external wayfinding issues
    -- helping people develop effective cognitive maps
    -- computer interface with multiple layers 

• Showing them the possibilities of a computer program, even without having the actual program
• A sense of the story that drives understanding--and how they are relate together; tied into an overriding narrative that has meaning associated with it-- THEMATIC ELEMENT