In the very competitive healthcare market, hospitals compete on ‘patient experience,’ which is often soured by getting lost, parking problems, or arriving late to appointments.
System management
1. Start with a goal to serve a specific audience—do not start with the declaration: ‘we should have an app.’ The team that created JourneyMaker began by defining a challenge to serve a specific audience. They conducted studies to see if imaginative storytelling and participatory activities could be used to connect families with fine art. They listed the needs of their audience (short, well-paced encounters with approachable artifacts) and tested each proposed interaction against that supposition until they landed on the right mix of interactive and traditional tools.
2. Experiment and iterate. American Airlines began experimenting with indoor location technologies in the 2000s, well before the commercialization of Bluetooth beacons. They have undertaken many pilot projects to test various technologies and often invite their app users to try new features.
Low fidelity experiments have yielded concrete improvements to the user interface design, from the pace of animation to the density of the map display.
3. Observe and evaluate. It may be impossible to count the number of people who notice a particular sign, but one can still analyze both the usage and usability of interactive wayfinding elements.
What destinations are people searching for on an interactive directory? What are the most-used features of an app? Where do people abandon the process of following a blue dot?
It is also important to observe people using these tools in real life. The many tools of usability research—from pre- and post-surveys to intercept interviews—provide surprising insights into the entire wayfinding experience.
4. Collaborate with experts. Many of the systems highlighted in this report are the result of collaborations among three types of specialists: experts of the place (such as museum curators or facilities managers), wayfinding professionals, and technology mavens.
Without all three disciplines at the inception of the project, the outcome can suffer. For example, without wayfinding professionals to weigh in on how to create the easiest route to follow, an app’s algorithm may direct visitors the shortest, but more confusing or even dangerous route.
5. Commit staff and funds to longer-term visions. The more successful systems are not simply the outcome of a vendor-selection process. Their design and implementation is a result of thoughtful decisions to invest in wayfinding technology and the people and operations to support it.
Above all, these tools reflect the institution’s desire to make their environments more intelligible and more convenient—an expression of the institution’s commitment to wayfinding as a core component of visitor experience.
Leslie Wolke is the founder of MapWell Studio. She consults with institutions and design firms on wayfinding technology and strategy. This article is based on a white paper Wolke, along with a five-member project advisory team, put together for the Sign Research Foundation. For more, visit www.signresearch.org.
