Navigating Educational Pathways/Hospital Wayfinding
Deanna Bains, Chris Brodt, Kaiqiao Chen, Wai Chui, Alexa Guse, Qing Han, Janelle Holod, Dong Ming Hu, Max Hurd, Mark Lafond, Michael Parillas, William Ramsey, Julie Sikora, Jillan Watts, Chris Wilson, Chenxin Zhou, C Couldwell + Ben King
In our 2014 Spring session course, Integrated Media for Communication (Design 337/437/537), students worked in a collaborative, inter-disciplinary setting to investigate complex communication needs. Our two projects involved community partners, focused on navigation and wayfinding. Both projects were reflective and responsive to the local spaces of the north in which they were created. The Navigating Educational Pathways project centered on the undergraduate student educational journey at the University of Alberta. The Hospital Wayfinding project identified short-term and long-term design opportunities for the multifaceted needs of a nearby hospital. The research conducted played a pivotal role in establishing the project parameters, provided a toolkit for students to question and critique current design practices, and allowed students to reflect on and refine their own design process.
