The Desert Botanical Garden knew it had a wayfinding problem. Visitors constantly wandered around looking lost, people showed up for appointments at the wrong location, and staff spent a lot of time giving directions and escorting people to their destination. The popular tourist destination had begun looking at maps and signage to try to address these problems when my smart colleagues in the planning and exhibit department stepped in and recommended a larger research project to discover and define our underlying wayfinding problems. Along with me, our core team during this phase included other members of the Marketing & Communications team, Visitor Experience (Admissions), Event Experience and later, the plant research department when we learned another important lesson.
Originally, the marketing staff assumed alerting visitors on the website as to what to expect on a visit would improve the visitor experience. However, it was soon discovered that visitors often arrived without preparing for their visit. We learned to ask, what is the question rather than, how do we solve this.
Objective
To build a comprehensive understanding of our institution’s wayfinding problem and create a foundation for future redesign work.
Process
Over the course of a few weeks, our team walked every path on the property. We tried to put ourselves in the mindset of people who knew nothing about the space (and this was easy, in many cases, as we had 56 acres to cover.) As we walked, we looked around to see what cues the space gave us.
Problems with signage were ubiquitous. The color and contrast of many signs were not sufficient, and their placement often didn’t support easy navigation. Sometimes there weren’t enough signs:
Sometimes there were too many:
We spoke with key people and departments who spend a lot of time giving visitors directions: Security, volunteers, member info desks, gift shop attendants, and admission staff at offices near the entrance points. We asked them about the common questions they received and their strategies for getting people from place to place; we also collect any materials (letters, maps, etc.) to help them find their way.
Co-creative workshops
It was important for our team to bring visitors, members and staff into our process. We employed heuretics. We held interviews and joined visitors to identify and articulate some of the key problems.
Design Sprints
The summer is too hot for most visitors, but that is when staff has the time and space to implement changes. To energize our team and test some assumptions, we did multiple ‘design sprints’ – a focused time of brainstorming, prototyping and learning about one specific problem. For the first sprint we chose the parking lot–the first point where visitors got mixed up.
Our entrance drive has two staff and service entrances before visitors arrive at the parking lot. There is a lot of vegetation in between parking lot lanes. There are also slightly visible buildings that were often confused with an entrance building. There are no consistent, official names for these two large zones. In practice, staff uses many different terms to refer to them, depending on how they perceive the space or how long they’ve worked at the Garden.
First curve. Vast property.
Our prompt for the sprint: How can we create a path that visitors can follow to get where they need to go?
After the first day of brainstorming, JRC developed a concept consisting of a new zone system :A, B, C . We decided to test this idea for deliveries (food and beverage ) and private busses (school and tourist). We instructed staff to include the entrance ‘title’ in follow- up and ordering forms. We created temporary (yet quite polished-looking) signs to post up within the hospital that would lead vendors between these zones.
After we’d posted the temporary signs, we intercepted visitors who were not in a hurry and asked them to give us feedback as they used it to find their destination.
People loved the concept:
I almost turned in the wrong driveway, but my husband pointed out the sign. .” Visitor
The simplicity is good.” –Staff member
I could have used this yesterday. I needed a GPS.” –Visitor
I didn’t realize there were multiple entrances, I’m always dropping people off in the wrong spot. -bus driver
We learned a lot from this little design intervention; not only that the concept had some promise, but that by making our work visible in this way we could raise excitement from members and staff.
Our whole team gathered together with all of our field notes and went through a multi-day process of distilling key insights.
We pulled out 20 important findings, and 12 guiding design principles to help guide eventual design work. Some examples of key findings:
- Visitors do not understand which trail is which
- There is often not a clear distinction between visitor and staff-only areas
- Pre-appointment directions and instructions are inconsistent
Examples of design principles included:
- Progressively disclose wayfinding information
- Always a cue in sight
- Reduce stress and cognitive load
The next step was to tackle getting guests through the gate.
Short-term ‘quick wins’
Prototyping and testing new signage and maps
One quick win for our team was color-coding our maps and trailhead signs. We went through a process of vetting the information on them, working with visitor facing departments to optimize them, and giving them a visual refresh.
In addition to signs, we worked with a local design team to develop wayfinding signage. We showed drafts of these maps to visitors and asked them to show us how they arrived at the entrance; where they parked; and where they currently were sitting. We found these new maps much more effective than the prior version. Below is a sample for our redesigned map:
Outcome
After giving the final presentation to various levels of leadership, this project continued to progress. Along with our team members in the Facilities department, JRC went through a process of selecting an expert wayfinding design firm to develop a new detailed system.
Additionally, visitors and members indicated they were disappointed in the lack of plant signage. They also didn’t know which sign referenced which plant, because they were in Latin and the common names could indicate any number of nearby cacti.
Next Phase: Low-hanging fruit
The Direct of Exhibits worked with the Horticure department to label additional plants of interest. The prompts for plants of interest were ones that volunteers often noted on their tours or heard people asked while on a tour. The signs included a small image of the plant as well as other names it may go by which were typically the Spanish names for the plant.
Event signage
An overlooked signage issue was often the event signage. Each department designed and printed their own signs. There were no formal parameters. Signs were printed on 9X11 sheets of paper and taped to a freestanding sign holder. The holder was meant to hold one sign at a time. Often up to four weddings and three educational classes were held throughout the Garden. These sign holders were moveable which caused confusion if an arrow then pointed in the wrong direction. It was an eyesore!
First Iteration
The easiest win was to create some sort of cohesion. The design team came up with a beautiful sign. However, staff soon discovered the black background with white letters used too much ink (wasteful spending for a non-profit).
Pivot
The designer added beautiful images of plants to the top of the sign, but this required colored ink which not all departments had.
The next changes included:
- Time & date of the event so support staff knew when to remove old signs.
- Image of the venue so guests knew they were in the right place
- Additional holders that could be added or removed
- Larger, more visible arrows
Human Arrows
The event staff would stand near the signage to answer questions or direct guests if they missed a sign. This would often happen for weddings and social events, because people were talking as they walked, not exploring the garden as a tourist would.
Other areas where people were confused were identified and additional signs were added.
The Garden Today
Years after this project started, the same map format and signage continues to work. While this project was a stopgap before the Garden had the funds to reconfigure the entrance and ‘welcome portal’ it created the first User Experience of my career.