more research/design progress

 I met with librarian Emily Puckett Rodgers and spoke to her about her experiences with Hatcher's wayfinding system. She is a librarian within the Hatcher wayfinding department (she is a space design & assessment librarian and is a manager in the library environments department). Below are my notes from my meeting with her:

Emily Puckett Rodgers Meeting

  • What are the top 3 biggest struggles that you have in terms of helping people navigate the building?

    • The fact that hatcher is actually 3 diff buildings- 3 diff architectural styles

      • North entrance and a basement and half floors

      • Behind that is a high rise- the south building

      • Really confusing to help people navigate through those 3 buildings that are the same building but essentially 3 diff buildings with different floors

    • Hatcher north is designed in a very traditional way

      • Entrances are not very user friendly

      • The lobby in north doesn't really give a good sense of where to go

        • Not good sight lines

        • Not easy to be oriented

        • Have to go to 2nd floor to get bearings

      • South entrance- just the bank lobby and elevators

    • 3rd: a lot of services are tucked away in corners of the building

      • Have to search around for services

      • Instead of being able to orient yourself

  • Are there any parts of the building that are particularly hard to find?

    • In the hatcher north building- the asia library collection and international studies collection

    • Restrooms are hard for people to find

    • The librarian offices are hard for people to find

  • What is the location that is asked about the most?

    • People ask where the special collections are 

    • People ask where the gallery is

    • People ask where the stacks are- can't find a book and can't tell whether it's in the north building or south

    • Restrooms are a constant

  • Are there any spaces you wish students knew more about?

    • The asia library reading room

    • Scholarspace wished could be advertised more

    • A lot of requests for serials and microforms

      • These are less visible than they could be

  • How have you approached the wayfinding thus far?

    • What are the things you consider the most important?

      • Tried to focus on the directories in the lobbies and in the elevators

      • Where you are in the building is really important to them to try and give grounding

      • What’s immediately around you- they are trying to make that more transparent

      • Within the stacks- create better guides where you are in the collection and how to read the collection

      • Tried to create a breadcrumb model- situating yourself in the directories and signage placed in the stacks to help ground you

        • Understanding where you are in the building and what’s around you in the collection

        • How to read the collection/ call numbers

        • Wayfinding also develops literacy in how to find what you’re looking for

  • What do you feel is lacking in the current wayfinding system?

    • Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

      • They struggle with readability and accessibility in terms of visual impairment and also accessibility in terms of being less jargony

        • Supporting someone who’s coming from a different culture

        • Not understanding academic library terms

        • Setting up barriers in that way

      • Struggle with how much do they rely on north, west, east cardinal directions

        • Tried to get away from that but also have relied on that

        • How do you orient yourself- what are your landmarks?


Design Sketches
I was inspired by the lettering in the entrance space at Hatcher that looks almost hand painted. These Pompeiian motifs are original the initial construction of the building. I think creating my brand identity/wayfinding system around type and colors that are inspired by these paintings would speak to the regal nature of the library and how it stands as an architectural monolith in the center of the Diag. Below is a photo of the motif that inspired me.


I did some sketches inspired by this font- I think the variation of weight within the letters is really beautiful and would be able to represent the elegance and history of the building. Here are my sketches:


After this research I decided to look into finding fonts that would align with the painted lettering. I know that building our own font is an option as well but for lettering like this I thought creating my own serif font would be extremely complicated and be its own project on it's own- let alone using it to create the branding and wayfinding. I think a simpler sans serif font would be more suited to design myself but for the nature of the building I think a clean serif font that already exists should work just fine. 

These are some design tests that I've done trying different fonts and color stories:






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