Abstract
These way-finding traces chart the development of understanding the holistic experience of way-finding in buildings by people who have a range of visual ability.
Ten participants [with varying degrees of visual ability, different ages and other forms of disability] undertook a ‘Way-finding Scenario’ designed to evaluate both existing memories of way-finding and present way-finding experience. The capturing of the way-finding trace was one of the methods adopted. Each dot represents 1 sec in time. I was looking for the hot-spots of way-finding through a building. The clusters of dots on the floor plan highlight ‘hot-spots’– areas of critical significance – when all movement has slowed down or stopped altogether. This highlights to us that something has happened within this specific area of the building in response to either physical impediment or decision-based change in trajectory.
This could be a positive hot-spot (e.g. meeting a friend in the hallway for a chat) or a negative hot-spot (e.g. a wheelchair blocking a doorway). Data collected from interviews, conversations and observations will illuminate whether hot-spots are positive or negative and the underlying reason(s) for it occurring in the specific location of the building.
Focused on the holistic experiential components of a Journey this research coins and defines the term Way-finding Hot-spot as it explores the events [positive and negative] which are experienced and therefore impact on a Way-finding Journey around a building. Based on user experience in a real-world way-finding context, participant data contributed to a new Theory of Way-finding – A Charting of a Way-finding Journey – which is composed of three elements: Journey Stages, Tasks Components and Communication Requirements.
Ten participants [with varying degrees of visual ability, different ages and other forms of disability] undertook a ‘Way-finding Scenario’ designed to evaluate both existing memories of way-finding and present way-finding experience. The capturing of the way-finding trace was one of the methods adopted. Each dot represents 1 sec in time. I was looking for the hot-spots of way-finding through a building. The clusters of dots on the floor plan highlight ‘hot-spots’– areas of critical significance – when all movement has slowed down or stopped altogether. This highlights to us that something has happened within this specific area of the building in response to either physical impediment or decision-based change in trajectory.
This could be a positive hot-spot (e.g. meeting a friend in the hallway for a chat) or a negative hot-spot (e.g. a wheelchair blocking a doorway). Data collected from interviews, conversations and observations will illuminate whether hot-spots are positive or negative and the underlying reason(s) for it occurring in the specific location of the building.
Focused on the holistic experiential components of a Journey this research coins and defines the term Way-finding Hot-spot as it explores the events [positive and negative] which are experienced and therefore impact on a Way-finding Journey around a building. Based on user experience in a real-world way-finding context, participant data contributed to a new Theory of Way-finding – A Charting of a Way-finding Journey – which is composed of three elements: Journey Stages, Tasks Components and Communication Requirements.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Gallery 3 by You, Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam, Netherlands, Rotterdam, Netherlands |
| Media of output | Online |
| Publication status | Published - 16 Apr 2021 |
| Event | RAW Exhibition by RARE - Gallery 3 by You, Het Nieuwe Instituut Rotterdam, Netherlands, Rotterdam, Netherlands Duration: 16 Apr 2021 → 16 May 2021 https://roundme.com/tour/709494/view/2236415/ |