Prezi

Also, be sure to check out the presentation I created to go along with our model!

PRESENTATION, CLICK HERE!

The Final Outcome

The final model of our project, seen here, is the result of many hours spent of group collaboration, thought, design, construction, deconstruction, and more construction. Every element of this final model came about from the previous trials and errors of this project. We refined the previous prototypes by adding the bands of color around the tower for more indication of floor and color, and added the extra blue band around the bottom to represent the standing of the tower on the fourth floor. The bug graphics became refined by adding the lime green background, indicating the bug exhibit’s location on the third floor. All-in-all I am so pleased with the outcome of this project, and had a great experience designing it with my team. I think it provides a beautiful, yet simplistic, solution to the missing navigational system of the Natural History Museum, thus concluding this project as a success!

COCA way f i n d i n g

This short writing really applied to this project that myself, along with my the rest of my group, has been conducting. Reading this essay helped provide more understanding of the right way to go about wayfinding. This article broke down graphic wayfinding---systems made of text, maps, photos, models, and diagrams. Graphic wayfinding is the most direct way for people to find his or her location. It emphasized using consistency with the use of signage being designed, and really stressed how important hieratic scale is for providing visuals and grabbing the users attention. The article also talked about the best way to go about maneuvering text and graphics for successful signage as well as how to place signage in relation to other architectural elements. It also made very clear that when designing signage, that it’s best to be simplistic and to the point, and that bright colors don’t really hurt either! This was another great read for providing more insight into the world of designing wayfinding, and conducting a successful project.

TED TALKS BIG.

This short video broke down the concept of design is design thinking. The basic ideas of this concept are simply that it starts with humans---with what we need or what we might need. It is understanding our culture and our context, and it is building to think instead of thinking what to build. Tim Brown went on to stress the importance of prototypes, how they help to speed up the process and evolve our ideas (which I personally 100% agree with after this project). Along those lines, Brown said design is too important to be left to designers, and that the design needs to be put in the hands of everyone, for more feedback and real life situations, and solutions. He also said “CHANGE brings new ideas”, a fabulous quote from this video, so simple yet so eye-opening. This film was short and to the point, simply putting that design needs to rid the “designer look of the black collared shirt and square glasses” and get back to the point of creating things that evolve our society and start leading us into the furture instead of being distracted by the present, by thinking BIG and outside the box, just as real designers should.

what is {ethnography} ???

This article breaks down the true meaning of ethnography to all readers. Ethnography, in short, is an approach to understanding. It is the seeking to make sense of the human condition, and a search for meaning. Ethnography looks to uncover people’s “norms” and gives insight to what makes sense of different cultural practices. It also uncovers the meaning people assign to the world and how that meaning comes about. Ethnography helps designers create more compelling solutions to our everyday arising problems in the design field.

Ethnography is discovered by what people say, versus what they do. It is also discovered by how people solve problems, how they organize things, what roles they assume in society, and what “necessities” people are always carrying with them, as this shows what they assume to be important.

Uncovering ethnography is done through a process that begins with defining the problem, rethinking the problem as a designer, defining the context of the problem, defining the sample (what group of people to study), making a game plan to tackle this process, entering the field (the heart of the process), analyzing and interpreting, sharing the insights, and defining the opportunities. This study is very important for all designers to use because it helps designers understand the relationship between what they produce and the meaning their product has for others.

Interaction DESIGN

In this article, readers gain insight to Bill Verplank’s method of using interaction design. His strategy of drawing diagrams and pictures at the same time he is speaking, reinforces everything that he is communicating to his audience. Verplank stresses the huge emphasis of how you act, how you feel, and how you understand. This article went into detail about his three “how do you” questions of doing, feeling, and knowing. He asks the reader how one specifically affects the world---and challenges us to take into consideration that we as designers are creating and designing the way people act. This article put into perspective that it is the responsibility of the designer to produce a map for all users of our design to follow.  

the retest.

We refined our first prototype model by getting the frame rebuilt---so a switch from a cardboard frame to a wooden frame. Then, we went about redoing and refining the graphics to fit within the environment more than the rough mockups of before. In my opinion, this model looks great, and it is easily seen with the interaction of the visitors. We also went ahead and put the bugs leading the pathway to the bug exhibit--which you can also see went over quite well with some of our younger generations!

prototype in the environment

For our first prototype, we constructed an 8ft tall by 27in wide, four sided rectangular tower to install in the Natural History Museum. By placing the (very rough draft) first prototype in the environment we were trying to recreate/redesign through wayfinding, it proved to be a successful trial run, with much learned from the first observational experiment. We observed that by placing the tower in the main entryway, visitors immediately flocked to it for directional usage--which was very good! (success!) ..However, we did witness that the tower seemed a tad too large--especially with the younger children. Their gaze never met the top of the tower, thus making what lied on the top floors of the museum less noticed than on the main floors. To fix this, in our final model we plan to scale the model down, and provide more kid friendly, simplistic graphics in our design.