As you would expect, there were quite a few entries with wayfinding or mapping functionality, for everything from locating dog parks to touring historic homes. Here are a couple of the most interesting:

UpNext 3D NYC

UpNext 3D NYC is an iPhone app that uses city GIS data and building perimeter outlines to create an interactive 3D map of New York.

In addition to providing a very detailed and clear 3D view (much more accurate than what you get with Google Earth, for example), the application also provides detailed information about subway stations and routes, and can provide the locations of nearby bars, restaurants, and other businesses, as well as parks, bike racks, and events.

WayFinder NYC

WayFinder NYC is an augmented reality application for Android phones that helps users to find New York subway and New Jersey Path stations. The user just aims the phone as if they were taking a picture, and the application indicates subway and PATH stations in that direction. When the user faces another direction, the list of stations will change accordingly.

By clicking on a station name, the user can get a map and walking directions to that station.

Ride the City

It appears that Ride the City existed before the BigApps competition, and it is also has versions for other cities, but is still eligible for the competition because it utilizes the City of New York’s LION centerline data.

The application delivers Google-Maps-style turn-by-turn directions for cyclists. It avoids busy roadways, and directs cyclists to bike lanes/paths where they are available. It is also aware of elevation changes, and recommends flatter routes when appropriate.

The application also has a fairly comprehensive database of bike shops, which are indicated on the route maps.

PrimoSpot

PrimoSpot uses the city’s parking facilities database to help drivers navigate New York’s notoriously difficult parking landscape. The application, available for the iPhone and Android devices, provides locations for garages, street parking, and bike racks, searchable by proximity to the user’s location.

For garages, the application includes information about parking rates, and for spots on the street there are detailed parking regulations, including special notations for spots that – based on the current time – are about the become legal parking spaces. Google StreetView integration helps users to find garages, and the application can even record were a user parked, making it easy to find their car or bicycle later.

BigMapple

While getting a little further from a true wayfinding application, BigMapple does offer some interesting map-related functionality.

One of several applications that take information from the city’s various event databases and display it on a map provided by the Google API, BigMapple adds another interesting element. It displays clickable icons for recent Twitter updates and Flickr uploads from the geographic area shown on the map.

While the current volume of Tweets and images is low, it is easy to imagine how these could work with the event listings to provide a nice overview of things happening around a neighborhood if the application takes off.

If you have experience with any of these applications, or see others in the BigApps gallery that look interesting, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

In this new video, recorded at the Gel Health Conference last month in New York, she relates some of her own experiences as a patient with a broken leg, and then discusses her ideas for redesigning the healthcare system by listening to the voice of the patient.

The presentation doesn’t include anything directly related to wayfinding, and it is much heavier on anecdotes than specific data or recommendations, but if you you work regularly in hospitals you will certainly find some inspiration here, as well as a renewed sense of what the end users of our work are facing as they navigate both the physical hospital environment and the emotional issues surrounding their own illness.

Compared to the fields of web development and traditional graphic design, from each of which you could easily put together a list of 100 designers who are heavy users of Twitter, the highly specialized world of wayfinding and environmental graphic design still has a relatively small footprint on the microblogging service. This means that this list is somewhat ragtag, with a combination of individuals, companies, publications, and organizations. And most of them aren’t cranking out 50 tweets a day. All of them, however, do manage to regularly share links to wayfinding-related news from around the web, as well as information about new projects, events, and even interesting products.

SEGD (@SEGD)

You’re probably already familiar with the Society for Enviromental Graphic Design, “the global community of people working at the intersection of communication design and the built environment.” Their steady Twitter stream is a nice mix of industry news and organization-specific information.

Arrows and Icons (@ArrowsAndIcons)

Arrows and Icons is a recently launched online magazine for environmental graphic design. The web site is still in its infancy, but they are very active on Twitter, retweeting a lot of wayfinding-related items and tracking down new material as well. Editor Ryan Lascano also tweets as @ryanlascano.

Mark Vanderklipp (@corbinprez)

Mark Vanderklipp is the president of Corbin Design, a wayfinding and EGD firm based in Traverse City, Michigan. Other Corbin staffers on Twitter include @rick_stringer and @geneullerysmith.

Sander Baumann (@designworkplan)

Sander Baumann is an Amsterdam-based designer and editor of the DesignWorkPlan blog. He tweets regularly about wayfinding, typography, and the intersection of the two.

Ricardo Hernandez (@rockerdesign)

Ricardo Hernandez is a visual communication and branded environments professional based in Washington, DC.

Wayfinding (@Wayfinding)

Ah yes, the mysterious @Wayfinding. Their Twitter profile offers no clue of their true identity, other than that they live in Toronto, but they do manage to generate pretty interesting tweets on a regular basis.

Amy Rees (@amayarees)

Amy Rees is a Senior Associate at MERJE Design at Philadelphia. She tweets regularly about EGD-related topics, particularly exhibit design. @kelbennett is another MERJE staffer on Twitter.

fd2s (@fd2s)

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our own Twitter presence. Not a high volume of tweets, but I do try to share a mix of fd2s updates, wayfinding-related news that I find on the web, and links to other things that are happening in the industry.

I hope that this list is a offers a good starting point for Twitter newcomers interested in wayfinding, or regular Twitter users looking to increase their involvement in the discussion about wayfinding and environmental graphic design. If you have other recommendations or ideas, feel free to speak up in the comments.

• Steve Coast, founder of OpenStreetMap spun a yarn about “ubiquitous geocontext.” He took us through an imaginary day in the not so distant future when our everyday interactions are encoded with geographic information and networked to share that information. For example, your car may “know” that when your gas tank is less than a quarter tank full, it should “look” for the least expensive gas available along your route, select the most efficient detour, and direct you to it. Your car may also alert you that Fred is offering to pay $10 to share a ride to work with you and that the detour required to pick him up would only take 5 minutes. Your appliances — such as your car, phone, calendar — will collaborate to perform realtime cost-benefit analysis based on your location, what you want to do, and where you are headed. None of these activities are difficult computing problems to solve, but they do require that geocontextual information is standardized (which it already is) and freely available (which much of it is not.) That’s the case for OpenStreetMap, a crowd-sourced repository of geographic information that is rivalling the more closed and/or proprietary data owned by Navteq and GeoAtlas. Think of it as Wikipedia for maps. Much of the informal conversation at the conference delved into the tautologies of “how open is an open API” and how closed is a black box.
• Bruce Daniel of Cartifact Labs spoke lyrically about the beauty of maps. He presented Cartifact’s maps of New York and Los Angeles: a clean, current base map with an interactive lens. As you sweep the lens over an area you can display maps of that area drafted in the 1800s. See for yourself at maps.cartifact.com.

While I was eager to learn about the latest crop of location-based services, such as applications for mobile phones and mapping technologies, I could not have imagined the extent to which the intersection of web technologies, GPS, and mobile phones has electrified the entrepreneurial and research communities. Here are just a few reports that represent the breadth of yesterday’s discussions.

• MIT MediaLab professor Sandy Petland introduced us to “Reality Mining” — the pursuit of understanding how organizations work by analyzing who’s talking to whom and who’s out of the loop. One could study the flow of information through a company by tracking email volleys, but he found it much more insightful to analyze in-person meetings by monitoring location and route data of employees. (Research made possible by RFID and other location-sensing devices.) Organizations with more formal and informal in-person interactions were more productive. What does that say about tele-commuting?
• Glympse announced their mobile application with the grammarian’s nightmare of a tagline: “Share your where.” The application allows you to share your location and real-time route with anyone you choose to, for as long as you choose to. The application tracks your route and sends updates to email/phone to the people you allow to monitor your route. See Bob Tedeschi’s review of the product in today’s New York Times.
• Two products are in the running for “coolest demo” — I leave it to you to choose: Joker Racer, a remote-controlled car via WiFi and over the internet that was described for the geeky audience as a “drivable linux server” or Velodyne’s Lidar, a sensor that uses 64 lasers to capture real-time surroundings in three dimensions — used by automatically-driven vehicles, the U.S. military and Radiohead.

What on earth (forgive the pun) will today’s sessions bring?

In January, I had the pleasure of touring the tremendous exhibits at the California Academy of Sciences. I interviewed the designers of the exhibits as well as their peers at the Academy for an article that has just been published in segdDesign, the quarterly magazine of the SEGD. Here’s a bit from the introduction:

Imagine receiving the following creative brief:

“Collaborate with a Pritzker Prize winning architect, evolutionary biologists and ecologists, and the staff of a 157-year-old acclaimed research institution to create a new generation of sustainable exhibition design for a space bathed in natural light and without walls, in the middle of Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.”

This was the challenge that brought together Jonathan Katz, founder and CEO of Cinnabar, a Los Angeles-based production and fabrication company, and Adam Brodsley, principal and co-founder of Volume Inc., a multi-disciplinary design studio in San Francisco. Katz, Brodsley, and a bevy of designers and exhibit specialists produced two main attractions for the new home of the California Academy of Sciences, the 412,000-sq.-ft. LEED Platinum museum that is transforming the definition of that word by its very being.

If you would like to read the article, download the pdf and post your thoughts below. (Above is a photo of a great quote from one of the exhibits – couldn’t find a way to work it into the article!)

You can get more information about the overall Access wayfinding program, which also included signage, architectural elements, printed materials, and staff training, in the fd2s web site’s M.D. Anderson Case Study. If that’s not enough, an even more detailed description of the project is available on our special Access Microsite.

When towns or cities recognize they have a wayfinding need – usually because they discover that visitors are constantly lost or that potentially popular visitor destinations are being underutilized – their first inclination is to install more signs. This is not surprising of course, since wayfinding is, after all, the practice of helping people to find their way, and signage is the field’s most obvious, long-standing tool.

But while signage may be an important part of the solution, taking such a narrow view of both the objectives and parameters of a wayfinding program will severely limit its potential benefits. An effective wayfinding program will actually consider much more than just signage, and if done correctly, it will have benefits that go far beyond simply helping people find their destination. A holistic approach to wayfinding will look at every possible point of contact with a user of the system, from the time they begin contemplating and planning their journey until they reach their final destination. The result will be something more than just great wayfinding. It will actually play a leading role in shaping the overall experience of visitors, which is a critical component of a strong, valuable brand.

The Experience is the Brand

Before we talk more about the relationship between wayfinding, user experience, and brand, some definition may be in order. A brand is much more than just a logo, tagline, and color palette. In its broadest, most valuable sense, a brand is actually an organization’s promise to its customers, who in the case of a town or city would be visitors and residents. When a brand is managed effectively, every contact point with a customer – whether it is a web site, a conversation with a visitors center volunteer, or a directional sign – is viewed as an opportunity to reinforce the brand promise.

And what is the brand promise? In today’s hyper-competitive marketplace, sophisticated organizations are increasingly seeking to differentiate themselves by moving away from traditional promises like speed, quality, or value, and instead putting the focus of their brand promise on the “experience” of using their product or service. Companies are devoting significant resources to improving the experience of using their products. They now look at everything from the design of the product to how it is packaged and delivered, the effectiveness of the instructions, and what kind of ongoing support is provided – all from the viewpoint of the user. Then they create marketing campaigns that feature the promise of this carefully planned and designed experience.

These same principles can be easily applied to the challenge of differentiating a town or city in the minds of potential visitors. In the world of municipalities, examples of experiences that could form the basis for compelling brands might include: a cosmopolitan world of arts and fine dining; a romantic retreat; a journey back in time; an opportunity to commune with nature; or a family-oriented adventure. The process of selecting the right experience for your community – while too involved to describe in great detail here – will involve a combination of user research (to determine how people currently view you), a thorough inventory of what your community has to offer, and some soul searching on how you want to be viewed by potential visitors. Those who have done this know that it is a challenging process, and that establishing a focus includes the sometimes-painful decision to eliminate efforts that are outside of this area of focus, but the long-term benefits can be substantial.

How Wayfinding Supports the Brand

When looked at in these terms, it is easy to see the role that an effective wayfinding program plays in building a community’s brand. The experience is the brand, and wayfinding – especially when defined as more than just signage – is a critical part of the visitor experience. Unlike a theme park or retail center, a municipality does not have total control of the visitor experience, and the components of your wayfinding system are likely to be your primary visitor touchpoints and your best opportunity to reinforce your message. Obviously, they reinforce this message with their appearance and messaging, but equally important is their content (which destinations are highlighted, etc.) and their functionality (do they offer the appropriate level of support and ease-of-use). A place that promises a laid-back, small-town experience might have a more subtle, low-key wayfinding program, for example, than one that promises a high-traffic, fast-paced, family adventure.

To ensure that a wayfinding program lives up to this challenge, it is important to first develop a very thorough understanding of where you have an opportunity to reach out to visitors, and what sort of information they need at each of these touchpoints. A skilled consultant will do this by observing and documenting the behavior of actual users, as well as by undertaking “naive” arrival and navigation exercises, during which they will approach the experience from various user viewpoints. These techniques are essential to getting beyond the preconceptions that the consultant and client representatives may have at the beginning of the project. The way you think your visitors behave – or even how they tell you they behave – might be quite different than reality, and an intense period of immersion in the actual experience is the best way to uncover the truth.

Elements of a Wayfinding Program

Throughout this process, it is important to take the broadest possible view of the elements that make up the wayfinding program. These include:

• Web site – Do you have a separate web site dedicated to the needs of visitors, or is visitor information buried within the city’s larger site? Does the site offer easy-to-use maps and directions?
• Printed materials – Do the materials you send to potential visitors make it easy for them to plan a trip, and tell them what to expect when they arrive?
• Visitors center – The design of the center and the services it offers should reflect the desired experience, and volunteers should be skilled at providing directions and advice that support this experience.
• Districts or pathways – Creating distinct zones or corridors (highlighting concentrations of arts facilities, historical sites, significant architecture, entertainment/sports venues, etc.) within a city can assist with wayfinding and also highlight the presence of relevant attractions.
• Signage – In addition to wayfinding signage, this could include interpretive exhibits, custom street identification and regulatory signs, and seasonal or event-specific pageantry.
• Other “placemaking” elements – Everything from architectural gateways and landmarks to street furniture and transit shelters can be designed to create a sense of place and reinforce the desired experience.

The Wayfinding Master Plan

Following the initial research, or “discovery,” phase, the next step will be the development of a long-term wayfinding master plan, which will ideally be integrated with a broader visitor experience strategy. This master plan should identify the components that will make up the wayfinding program, and explain the role that each plays in enhancing the visitor experience. If the plan is too large for immediate implementation, it should include a phasing strategy that prioritizes elements based on their potential impact, and ensures that the program is implemented without creating gaps in the experience.

The master plan should also include a strategy for testing major components of the plan before they are fully implemented. Wayfinding tools that look good on paper sometimes fail in the real world, so before committing the resources required to roll them out over a large area, they should be mocked up and installed in an actual location as part of the final design process. Their aesthetic appropriateness and functionality can then be evaluated, and the reaction of actual users can be observed and documented.

Implementing the Plan

The next step will be the actual implementation of the elements of the wayfinding strategy. This process will include the design and fabrication/installation of recommended wayfinding components such as signage and other environmental enhancements, as well as the creation of interactive tools and printed materials. In addition, there may also be operational issues that will need to be addressed as part of the strategy. These could include things such as training for visitors center staff, creation of a special “wayfinding hotline” phone number, or partnerships with other area communities or organizations.

Even after the initial implementation is complete, the wayfinding program should be viewed as an organic project. It should be reviewed regularly for effectiveness, and should be updated as appropriate to meet the changing needs of users. Budgets for these ongoing activities should be discussed in your master plan. And if you will be using your own in-house signage capabilities to make updates, these capabilities should have been evaluated early in the planning process to ensure that municipal personnel will be able to maintain the quality of the new system.

As you can see, creating a truly effective municipal wayfinding program – one that achieves its functional goals and supports your community’s brand message – is a significant undertaking. When viewed as an opportunity to reshape the visitor experience, however, rather than just a signage problem, it is clear that it is a challenge worth taking seriously. The first step is to assemble a diverse, forward-thinking team, which should include Convention and Visitors Bureau staff, Public Works employees, business and community representatives, and senior local officials. This group should then select a consultant that understands the importance of the visitor experience and knows that effective wayfinding requires something other than just more signs. With this team, and a long-term commitment to the project, you will be well on your way to changing the way visitors experience your community, and building a stronger, more valuable brand as a result.

If you are a healthcare architect or facility manager who isn’t already familiar with all of these organizations, you should definitely give them a close look. And if you’re a wayfinding professional looking to develop a better understanding of how concepts such as family-centered care, patient satisfaction, and evidence-based design are shaping the environment at healthcare facilities, these groups are a great place to start.

1. The Center for Health Design

The Center for Health Design is the most active and robust of the organizations listed here. They are the driving force behind the annual Healthcare Design conference, which is the premier event for people interested in healthcare facility design, and they are also the creators of the Pebble Project, which is documenting the financial and quality-of-care benefits of better facility design, and the Evidence Based Design Accreditation & Certification program.

This is also the organization that gives the most attention to wayfinding, and seems to best understand both the impact that wayfinding can have on the patient experience, and amount of strategic thinking that goes into the development of a truly effective wayfinding program. They regularly feature presentations on wayfinding at the Healthcare Design conference, and have included the subject in many of their educational and research materials.

2. The American Society for Healthcare Engineering

Part of the American Hospital Association, the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) is a large, active organization, with quite a few resources available to members and the public. As the name implies, their focus leans a little bit more toward the technical aspects of facility design, with a lot of discussion of technical topics ranging from lean project delivery to displacement ventilation.

The annual Planning and Design Conference (PDC), which ASHE puts on in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects’ Academy of Architecture for Health, includes a healthy dose of evidence-based design and patient-experience-related sessions. And while this year’s conference (March 1-8 in Phoenix) doesn’t include any wayfinding sessions, I know they have included these in the past, and I even presented there a few years ago.

3. The American Institute of Architects’ Academy of Architecture for Health

In addition to their involvement with ASHE’s annual Planning and Design Conference and the Center for Health Design’s Healthcare Design Conference, the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health has several of its own resource offerings. These include an awards program, an irregularly published journal, fellowships, and a “Healthcare 101″ webinar series.

4. The Institute for Family-Centered Care

The Institute for Family-Centered Care is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting the understanding and practice of patient- and family-centered care. According to the organization, the core concepts of patient- and family-centered care are:

• Dignity and Respect. Health care practitioners listen to and honor patient and family perspectives and choices. Patient and family knowledge, values, beliefs and cultural backgrounds are incorporated into the planning and delivery of care.
• Information Sharing. Health care practitioners communicate and share complete and unbiased information with patients and families in ways that are affirming and useful. Patients and families receive timely, complete, and accurate information in order to effectively participate in care and decision-making.
• Participation. Patients and families are encouraged and supported in participating in care and decision-making at the level they choose.
• Collaboration. Patients and families are also included on an institution-wide basis. Health care leaders collaborate with patients and families in policy and program development, implementation, and evaluation; in health care facility design; and in professional education, as well as in the delivery of care.

Much of the organization’s focus is on operational or clinical issues such as doctor-patient communications and information sharing, but they extend their recommendations into facility design as well. In the Environment and Design section on their web site, for example, they address both the design process and some recommended features of a patient- and family-centered physical environment, including a section on signage.

5. The American College of Healthcare Architects

The American College of Healthcare Architects provides Board Certification for Architects who practice as healthcare specialists. In addition to administering the certification exam, the organization also puts on workshops and education sessions, and their searchable online member directory is a great resource if you are trying to find architects that specialize in healthcare design.

6. The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design

The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design is a young organization whose mission is to “improve the nurse’s work environment through education and collaboration.” There’s not a lot of info on the public area of the site, but it sounds like an organization that may be worth keeping an eye on.

7. The Healthcare Facilities Symposium

The Healthcare Facilities Symposium is actually a for-profit event, not technically connected to any industry organization. It’s definitely not a fly-by-night operation, however. It has been around for 22 years, the program is very good, and it typically features at least one session devoted to wayfinding. My impression is that this event falls somewhere between the Healthcare Design and ASHE conferences. It’s not quite as high-minded as the former, but a little less nuts-and-bolts than the latter.

Let me know if you are familiar with any organizations that I have missed, or feel free to share your recommendations in the comments.

Now New York City and Google have partnered to create a web site (www.nycgo.com) and information center (at 810 Seventh Avenue) that use Google’s latest technology and information offerings to inform and direct city visitors.

The site has some great features and a lot of content, but the most interesting thing about this project may be the touch screens in the information center, which are demonstrated in this video.