Client Overview
The client is the heads of the LYIT college, a regional Irish college, so I needed to make a wayfinding solution that was not cluttered, but also include the Irish language.
The Problem
The main problems I identified were the maps, signs and icons. The maps incomprehensible, I found three types of maps; one was hard to read because it was pointing to the sections of the building rather than the college layout with icons that were dull and did not stand out, the second had way to many visuals and colours clashing together, and the last were fire exit maps that were so dull that they were hard to focus on. The signs were boring, did not stand out and very cluttered. I also noted that there weren’t many icons in the college and the ones that were there were very dull and lacked a graphic language. The colours around the college were random with no consistency and boring.
User Profile
The user is anyone in the college who’d be using the wayfinding system. My target audience varies between students from Ireland and from other countries, lecturers and other LYIT Staff (e.g. canteen, cleaning, researcher) and visitors of the LYIT. Considering Irish students, I am aware that there is a need to revive the Irish language, but the students who don’t speak Irish would have a lot of difficulty understanding signs that are mainly in Irish, because there is so much Irish that the English gets lost. I decided to make a compromise and make it more icon focused, reducing words, but still using some Irish.
My Design Objective
My main objective is to make it easier to get from a to b, lower the time the user spends reading signs on maps and reduce the amount of times the user asks for directions. I wish to develop a more organised wayfinding system through colour coordinating the departments and having an icon developed for each subjects and areas of the college.
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Wayfinding Solution
The final design is organised and easier to navigate. I have colour coded each department to make them easier to distinguish and all the services have a light blue colour, but food services area lime green. The typefaces I have chosen were Paralucent, for the larger typographical signs, and Roboto, for the smaller signs and leaflets. These typefaces make it both easier to read and more interesting. I developed icons to each subject and service, each with a rounded simplicity, making them easy to understand and navigate.
The map I designed is grey with the colourful icons, which makes them standout and making it much easier to navigate. The maps would be painted on the walls in each department, with a small icon to point out your current location. The map has also been designed as a leaflet and to be used on a mobile phone. The signs I designed are structured and organised, with a lot less typography than the previous design and a lot more icons, as I find icons are better for faster understanding when it comes to wayfinding.
