From Spaces to Places Booklets and Postcards
Design · Wayfinding | Proposal for Wayfinding System in Nanyang Technological University
Making navigation a simpler and pleasurable experience on campus
“The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host anticipating the needs of his guests.”
— Charles Eames
BACKGROUND
I can still recall vividly, the first time I visited the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) campus to submit my university application and being unable to find the fastest way to get to the Administration Building. This led me to making unnecessarily long walks and detours on the hilly campus. Fast forward 4 years later, I still found myself having difficulty identifying where I was on campus, especially when cross-disciplinary classes took me to different rooms across different buildings outside the vicinity of the School of Art, Design and Media where my core classes are taken. With that in mind, I did a survey to find out what my peers thought about the existing wayfinding solution on campus – clearly, I was not the only one feeling this way. Hence, for my Final Year Project, I decided to rethink the navigation experience on campus, with a strong conviction that the role of design was to help make life better, help make life pleasurable.
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APPROACH
I started off by thinking about the key collaterals of wayfinding – a map, signages, and directory boards. This would form the basis of enabling navigation.
Proposed directory board at key building cross sections
Proposed directory board at bus stop
Proposed signage for building corridors
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
DISTILLING THE MAP TO ITS ESSENTIALS
One of the key focus areas for rethinking the campus navigation experience was to address how the campus map is presented.
Firstly, the building footprints drawn to provide higher architectural fidelity to allow users to better identify buildings through their shapes. Kinks in the roads are cleaned out as drivers would need to only know the general directions on a map before proceeding to use in-car navigation systems or rely on street directional signages for guidance.
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Secondly, building functions on the map itself are reduced to create a better flow of reading the map. The ideal sequence for reading would be to first identify the location the user wants to go to before looking at the map. This approach contrasts from the original flow whereby a user would first try looking for his destination on the map because the level of detail suggests it might be there before being disappointed that he could only find it in the listing.
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Thirdly, colours are used to suggest the facilities or functions of the places within the map hence providing a clear indication of where the general category of places can be found such as food or key lecture theatres.
Proposed design vs current design
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
A SPACE BECOMES A PLACE WHEN ENDOWED WITH MEANING
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Together with the campus map, I've also created a booklet showcasing the various buildings around campus. After all, the Nanyang Technological University is amongst the Top 50 universities in the world and has also made the ranks to be amongst the most beautiful campuses in the world. This allows a user to experience the campus in a more engaging manner as each building has its own history and story to tell.
Directions to the NTU campus
Directions around the campus via bus
The Administration building where I first got "lost" walking in detours for my portfolio submission for my university application.
For quick navigation and extra information such as bus arrival timings, the app can be used
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
GETTING AROUND CAMPUS CAN BE AN EXPERIENCE IN ITSELF
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While this project started off with the intent of making wayfinding easier, as the project evolved, I asked myself, why not take this to the next level and make it fun and meaningful! After all, the campus is located pretty far out from the city centre, why not make that journey around the campus, wonderful as well, on top of the main reason why people may be visiting the campus.
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With that in mind, I created postcards featuring the different schools' building footprint and photo to help people identify these buildings as "landmarks".
Building footprint as abstracted patterns
Photographs of the buildings to serve as identifiers when locating a building
Final Year Project Interactive Slides
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This project was selected to be featured as part of Behance Graphic Design Curated Gallery.