segdDESIGN No. 26

Kent State University Wayfinding Research

Rethinking the Campus

A Kent State University study questions some long-held assumptions about urban wayfinding.

Wayfinding is a complex and site-specific discipline that is only taught by a handful of university-level design programs. A recent course offered at Kent State University not only adopted a research-based approach to teaching the discipline, but also charted new territory in the exploration of symbols, colors, and destinations used in urban wayfinding.

Legible London

Walk This Way

London’s prototype wayfinding system aims to simplify a complex city and encourage walking.

With London’s numerous neighborhoods and boroughs, unplanned maze of streets, and dense road traffic, it’s not easy for pedestrians to find their way around. A 2001 London Area Transport Survey found that one in seven Londoners had trouble navigating the city on foot, and one in four feared getting lost. That’s to say nothing of the 27 million annual visitors, many discovering the city for the first time.

The Image of the City

The Image of the City

Fifty years after the publication of Kevin Lynch’s seminal book, his vocabulary and human-centered approach are still shaping urban design and wayfinding.

In my junior year in college, I took a correspondence course in urban geography from Penn State. As I read the textbook in the basement boiler room of an old elementary school (my summer job cleaning and fixing boilers was actually ideal for taking a correspondence course), I discovered an author who would forever change my perceptions about urban planning and design.

Official NYC Information Center

Virtually There

The Official NYC Visitors Center is a digital-era launching pad for New York tourists.

The renovation of the Official NYC Information Center is not a mere before-and-after story. In the hands of New York-based designers Local Projects and WXY Architecture, the storefront space in midtown Manhattan has been transformed from a stereotypical visitor-service station into a new model that swaps printed maps and brochures for digital interfaces that are seamlessly integrated with the architecture.

Sony Wonder Technology Lab

World of Wonder

The second-generation Sony Wonder Technology Lab negotiates a new deal between technology, architecture, and experience.  

In many ways, the newly renovated Sony Wonder Technology Lab—Sony Corporation of America’s interactive, free-to-the-public museum in midtown Manhattan—reflects the evolution of our love affair with technology.

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