Before I started my Wayfinding class back in the beginning of the second semester, I had many assumptions about what wayfinding is. (later I was told to never assume anything in design...) I took it straight from the meaning of the word - to look for directions. It must be associated with legibility, and articulate messages in directions, and lots and lots of arrows.
Up until now, Wayfinding consists of much more than my early presumptions. It is consisted of two major components: information design and signage/wayfinding system design. In the beginning of the class, we did an exercise in information design, where we were taught how to organize mass information into a clear and visually dynamic way. The keywords were hierarchy, micro, macro, and relational graphics.
We were recommended a book called Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte. I was immediately fascinated by how the information can be much more clear when the unnecessary elements are eliminated. Simplicity is the key. In one of the LAYERING AND SEPARATION chapters, Tufte pointed out that 1+1 = 3 or more.
"In the simplest case, when we draw two black lines, a third visual activity results, a bright white path between the lines. And a complexity of marks generates an exponential complexity of negative shapes. Most of the time, that surplus visual activity is non-information, noise, and clutter." p61.
Here are some final results with my project. The objective was to design a One Day Sports Schedule for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. My initial attempt was to use a gradient of colours as a suggestion for various time periods of the day.
The problem was that the colours are from dark to light, therefore it is difficult to differenciate the background from the actual information in the foreground, which lead to my second solution: I changed the background to a horizontal grey grid, divided the sports into On Land and In Water. I also added a coloured column for the indication of "Noon".
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