Fred Hutch
Campus Map
DELIVERABLES
High-Fidelity Mockups, Development Specs, QA
ROLE
Interactive & UI Designer
INDUSTRY
Healthcare
AGENCY
Reducing Visitor Stress via Wayfinding.
Medical appointments are stressful enough; the last thing patients need is to struggle to find their way. Fred Hutch has physical maps on campus but visitors needed a solution that walks with them.
Navigation Panel
The key component for interactivity was to introduce the a navigation panel. Following detailed discussions with the client about the navigation elements and user needs, I designed a system that addresses the user’s question “What are you looking for?”
Lessons
Learned
Maps appear deceptively simple but much of the complexity is hidden with multiple views required to define what details are visible depending on the user's zoom level.
Zoom Levels
We tend to look at maps as accurate depictions of spaces, but they are often altered for clearer visual communication (e.g. building sizes and shapes). This also explains why some people think Hawaii is next to Alaska (blame the maps!)
Accuracy vs. Communication
With the opportunity to revisit this project, I would scope a site visit as part of a mini-discovery process to put myself directly in the visitor's shoes.
Contextual Research
This project is live on the Fred Hutch Website, with alterations. Sometimes it's disappointing to see your work changed, but this is a fantastic example of iterative improvements and I'm glad they launched and learned.