Overview
New England Tech, while small, has quite a lot to offer on campus, and while the current students and faculty know these buildings like the back of their hands, many newer students may not feel the same way. For my wayfinding and content audit of the campus, I focused my attention outside the buildings and researched the unfortunate situation that is NEIT’s exterior wayfinding.
Some of the main issues that make this school unclear to first time visitors include:
- Lack of signage and directions make navigation confusing
- Lack of branding and promotional material leaves the school with no personality.
To solve these problems, I designed several pieces that may be used in conjunction with each other to not only serve as functioning guides for on-campus navigation but also give the school a flashier personality than the extremely limited wayfinding materials available. Similar materials could be added later on.
Informational Kiosk
This would be a one-stop-shop to aid visitors and students around campus. This outdoor structure would be located in the front of the main building and by the walkway between the main building and the dorms. The Informational Kiosk would have two display boards, lit by overhead lights, featuring a campus map (Seen below) as well as NEIT news and events for anyone walking by.
Campus Map
The campus map is designed to help students and faculty understand exactly where they are on the school campus at all times. The map also highlights areas of interest to help those in need navigate from point A to Point B as smoothly as possible.
Directory Sign
A directional sign located by the rotary to guide drivers to their destination, featuring the New England Tech mascot: Techie the Tiger.
Navigational Icons
A group of minimal icons to be used in multiple applications for navigational purposes. These icons are a quick and easy way of identifying a location without the use of words or descriptions. The icons I have designed represent the following locations: Basketball court, soccer field, dormitories, shuttle stop, main campus, and the student courtyard.
Basketball Court Sign
A banner designed to catch the eyes of those passing by, with the goal of incorporating more NEIT branding with the basketball court.
Conclusion
These are just a few things that may be used to provide even more pleasant affordances for first-time visitors on campus. While this is a solid start, there are many more ideas and concepts that could be added to this list of improvements in the future. Something else that may be interesting to develop would be more outdoor displays such as fountains, statues, etc., nodes to increase the overall personality of the school and attract more applicants.
