What I learned from Design and Wayfinding so far

Design is something I have never done before, and yet something I have always wanted to do. Taking this course is going to open a whole range of possibilities to me, because it helped me become more familiarized with the main concepts in design and wayfinding in just three weeks of learning.

Design is social

Artists can present their work without any accountability for other people since the sole purpose of art is entertainment, whereas design cannot be selfish – it has to serve other people (hence the term Human-Centered Design, or HCD). Design helps make one more empathetic. A classic example of this is that a designer of a staircase needs to make sure to implement enough space and resources to build a ramp since there are people on wheelchairs and with prams that cannot use stairs to climb up (Another great quote by the professor: “A ramp can replace any staircase with a ramp”). The accessibility aspect of Wayfinding Design comes into play here: all systems of infrastructure must be accessible to everyone. What I love about this is that a person’s disabilities are not defined by a person’s nature but by the environment. If a person cannot perform a particular task, it is not their fault but of the faulty design (take the stairs problem for example again, and another one of the professor’s quotes: “We don’t always notice the exclusiveness of designs. Accessibility needs to go hand-in-hand with design”). This gives hope to many people that suffer from not being able to carry out regular tasks on a daily basis. I believe that if all people learn the basic principles of design, our world would become a much kinder and more inclusive place to live in. But we should start with ourselves first…

Blackfriars Road in London, England

Photograph by Alvin Pastrana

Exclusive Wayfinding lenses

One of the students in an introductory video on wayfinding that we watched during class said that taking the Wayfinding course results in wearing lenses that cannot be taken off. Those lenses are how one sees the world around themselves and the design systems that make living on that world possible. For now, the lenses I have can be taken on and off. If I pay close attention to a particular place on campus, I can now notice what that place’s disadvantages are. During one of the classes, the professor said, “if you are eating soup with a spoon and you notice its shape, then there must be something wrong with that spoon.” As such, the best design is one that is not noticeable. Design is like an invisible force that constantly tries to improve our lives…

 

The best way to learn is to do

“Think globally, act locally” is a phrase that my high school loved to promote. This course is an educational manifestation of that phrase. But this time, I am truly invested in it. I am convinced – thanks to the activities we have done in and out of the classroom – that our campus Wayfinding system has a lot of areas to improve in, ranging from mocking elevator buttons for visually impaired people to the misleading signage system. It is us Wayfinding students whose responsibility it is to correct the drawbacks of our campus. Of course, it is not as easy when it comes to actual problem-solving. To be honest, when the professor gave us our first individual assignment – the door challenge – I was caught off-guard, and did not know what to do. My result was something that did not make use of any of the universal principles of design. Part of the learning process I guess! Jokes aside, the professor said in one of the earlier lectures to “never underestimate how much we can progress.” He also added that “failing, for a bright person, is failing for the last time in that area.” I hope I am bright!

Unpressable elevator “buttons” for visually impaired people on campus.

Photo by Muhammad Hasin Shabbir

The user is always right, and Affordance

In Design, and especially Wayfinding Design, it is a classic rule that the user is in the right, or, at least, not the one to blame. Design has to consider all the possible usages of a system by a user and isolate the usages that the designer prefers. If a table should not be used to sit on, then that table should be designed in a way that does not let people sit on it. This is called affordance, which is one of – if not the – most important principle in design. In other words, affordance is a property of a design system that defines its possible uses. I wonder if table designers slept during their classes on affordance since I have not ever seen a comfortable table that I cannot sit on!

Of course, it is not that easy. Design has many intricacies that complicate the development of a final product, which can lead to complications. Sometimes  designers have to give up on a particular property of their product in order to highlight the other. The question is, how much are you willing to give up to show what you can do best?

P.S. I felt like there is an excellent inspiring phrase that can be written on this curved rectangular wall while I was writing this blog in the library. Check this out and tell me what you think of the social and “photoshopical” aspects of this change!!

Sources:

https://blog.miragestudio7.com/ramp-stairs-for-the-able-and-disable-less-able/3979/

https://www.istockphoto.com/photo/youve-got-to-see-it-to-believe-it-gm1305313808-396237496?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=srp_photos_top&utm_content=https%3A%2F%2Funsplash.com%2Fs%2Fphotos%2Fglasses&utm_term=glasses%3A%3A%3A

https://create.vista.com/unlimited/stock-photos/188724600/stock-photo-young-man-sitting-table-talking/