OUGD405: Studio Brief 1 - Wayfinding (Interactive Wayfinding Ideas & Feedback)

Following on from the idea of having digital signage within the shopping centre, I took a look further into interactive signage and how this could be used to create a more useful and efficient way finding system.

Roughly 2 Metres Away

Roughly 1 Metre Away

Currently, their signage is almost impossible to read from a reasonable distance as shown within the pictures above. This shouldn't be the case with way finding, it should be legible enough from a close enough distance so much so that you aren't having to come face to face with the sign simply to find out where a particular shop is. 

A few examples of interactive signage are shown above. The first example couples both standard static signage with digital ones so that permanent information such as toilets can be used on the static signs, but estimated train times to certain destinations, any delays etc. can be updated on the digital signs. This concept is extremely useful given static signage isn't capable of this.

The second example shows a 3D map of the environment, which for Trinity, would be much more ideal, given the several buildings and floors it has, a 3D visualisation of their route would be more helpful than a flat 2D one.

Rough Mockups

The interactive signage route seems to be the most appropriate for something such as a shopping centre, the reason being is that it's an efficient system as it can adapt to things such as people of all different languages, who can quickly change the settings into their own language, speeding up the process of finding their route to a particular store.

Not only that, but rather than spending time having to sift through a large list of shop names to find a shop you want to visit and then find the corresponding place on the map, an interactive system would mean simply typing in the name of the shop, finding your route and then following on from there. Or in some cases, if someone is wanting to visit several different shops, the system would be able to create the quickest route to visit these shops in quickly, without the hassle of having to figure it out yourself. Given there's a good chance that a lot of people often visit on their lunch break, this feature would be especially helpful if they're stuck on time, e.g. limited to 30 minute break.

The idea behind it would be that the screen would great you as you approach it, with sensors detecting someone within the vicinity of the screen up to 1 metre, in turn making the screen readily available to find your chosen shop(s). When not in use it would be displaying information as usual, mostly useful information or possibly store promotions etc so that people are greeted with these when entering from any side of any building.

Initial Mockup of Interactive Signage

Another concept I wanted to add into my idea is the ability to send your route directly to your phone, so once you'd established your route you'd be able to tap your phone against a pad next to the screen and using NFC (Near Field Communication) the route would be sent to your phone to allow you to follow your route directly from your phone.

Example of NFC - Apple Pay

NFC allows for data to be exchanged over close range, a common use of it currently is Apple Pay which allows for you to pay for certain things via holding your phone up to the card machine. This would ultimately be the same concept for the route except after holding your phone up to the screen, you'd receive your route directly to your phone as shown in the rough mockup below.

Phone Route Mockup

Feedback:

Overall I received a lot of positive feedback about my interactive way finding system, supporting my argument that it's adaptable and more efficient than a standard static signage system.

One critical comment I did receive about my ideas that they aren't entirely sure how I'd go about creating and setting up this system. I think this is one thing I would look into, what materials, processes etc I would need to go through to make this system a realistic and functional one.