Scenario X: You have known for a while now that your dad was going in for a scheduled knee surgery, a procedure that should follow protocol. The doctors suit up, go in, do their job, close up, and your dad will be out recovering and before you know it; walking again in no time. You and the family are relaxed about it. Although you have that pesky voice in the back of your head with the case of the “what if’s”, but you are sure everything will go smoothly. The day comes and the surgery happens, you get a call, and it turns out something happened that shouldn’t have. What do you do and where do you go?
With a scenario like this you are distraught, you are anxious, stressed, and worried. You get to a place like the medical district and what do you do? The Illinois Medical District of Chicago is like a place I have never been before. Hospitals as is are difficult to navigate, a district like this is even harder. You can follow the signs somewhat with a bit of doubt if you are on the right track. Finding the main entrance to Rush wasn’t terrible, but when it was time to navigate within the facility, it took us no time to get completely lost. We ended up in a fire stairwell where the only exit would sound off a fire alarm and that wouldn’t have been good. There are many situations in which the user is unfamiliar with where they are standing and all they care about is getting to their destination quickly. How can we address this?
As an architect, we think in plan, we can visualize and understand maps and know where we are standing and where we should head. As a user of the space sometimes knowing where you are based on a floor plan/map can be a bit difficult and mindboggling. To help alleviate this kind of stress on the user, it is our job as designers to design our buildings with ‘wayfinding’.
As we look back to our little scenario, we think about how stressed out this person can be and trying to navigate within an already difficult space is hard enough, but try being distraught and only thinking about ‘where is my dad and is he ok?’ It is key to create a space and continuous spaces with ease of navigation in mind. This can help create a healthier environment and less chaos.
There are many ways in which wayfinding can be incorporated. An article done by Healthcare Design Magazine specifies the importance of ‘signage’, although there are variety of other factors that create a successful patient-focused wayfinding system, signage remains at the core. One example in which Rapid City Regional Hospital takes signage to a different level, is by changing the terms from medical terminology to layman’s terms. By using ‘progressive disclosure’, only giving the user the information needed to reach the next step in their destination, this hospital created an effective wayfinding system.
As we struggled to reach an exit out of Rush Hospital, we retracted our steps to the elevator we came from and began to follow the signs along the corridor. This was our key to getting out, although it was how we got lost in the first place. Emphasis on signage design is crucial to the effectiveness in wayfinding.
Image: Taken by iPhone 7.
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