Progress scheme

Project evaluation

Remark on the assignment

First there are some issues to say about the design brief for this assignment.

Without the possibility to use any text it would be hard to provide a tourist pedestrian map with a wide scope of rich information. Of course this will be a great challenge.

If you would like to go shopping it will be matter for argument if you would prefer to do this before visiting the cultural treasures or maybe in the end when you have the time left.

The size of the proposed screen is excessive and would take away any sunlight at the railway station. The energy required for the 48 m2 LCD screen would be equally excessive and is not a good idea when inducing awareness regarding the scarcity of natural resources.

The recommended walking route misses out on really important and interesting sightseeing spots such as; the market square, the Vermeer museum and the canal houses on the Oude Delft and Koornmarkt.

And finally, what are the intentions of the test results? Why does there have to be a significant difference between two maps which are having a different purpose?

In our interpretation of the assignment we used the results to create the final redesign. But the changes done in the final design will make the difference between both maps more conspicuous again, something we had to avoid in the test design.

Result of the final map

Anyway we had to create the pedestrian map in A3 format. The test results encouraged us to do some improvements on the tested map to create the final map design.

During the test the responses on the questions were often surprising. Some details on the map which we expected to be clear for everyone were frequently misinterpreted. For example the landmarks got mixed up with the impression pictures. To avoid this confusion the impression pictures got integrated in the background by a grey frame. The beginning of the route was recognized by just half of the respondents. In the redesign we added an arrow to pinpoint the starting point of the route. Other respondents contemplated to go first to the place where most of the landmarks and icons were located, some of them would not even use the route but walk straight ahead. In the final design the landmarks and icons got equally spread over the route.

Recommendations

For the large format where the map will be displayed in, the city plan could have been more detailed. In the current map the icons are just placed to give a first impression. In the larger version the icons for restaurants, bars and shops should be placed on every location where a business owner would like to advertise his place.

All interesting landmarks / sightseeing spots of Delft should be made visible on the plan. If we would do this in the smaller A3 format the map will probable look to chaotic.

Final Version

Here are the final versions of the maps after improvements made. More landmarks are added to be used as a guide for people. Also a more conspicuous way to direct people to walk clockwise or counterclockwise was added at the beginning of the route: an arrow.

Other small improvements where made as well.

Shopping Map

Museum Map

User Test

Method, results and conclusions of the usertest. Posted in JPEG format to retain tabel format. A PDF version can be downloaded here.

Background studies

Different coloured backgrounds used to determine the redesign. The previous post shows the redesign.

The changed maps after receiving feedback

Above can be seen the Museum and the Shopping map with the changes we have made after receiving the feedback on our presentation. The actual map with the route is now in the center and on both sides are photographs wich will indicate what can be seen on the route. These pictures are different for both maps.
Also, the landmarks are more visible and differentiate from both maps aswell. On the museum map only the museum landmarks and icons are shown so people would get attracted to walk towards the most landmarks they see and in this way they automatically will follow the correct route and viceversa for the shopping map.
Because we wanted the map to stand out, the surrounding area is shown with a lower opacity.

Feedback first concept presentation

The core of the feedback to our first concept maps is that the difference between the two maps are too subtle. There could be more ways to persuade the viewer to follow the routes. The differences between the maps are the background colour and the pictures on the left side. The right side (the actual map) are the same in both maps. In order to create a less subtle difference, there should be more focus on the icons and the route. This is because when using the map, the viewer will mostly look at the right side of the map. The left side is merely a 'first glance' impression. There could be some variations in the size and color mode of the icons. For instance, making the shopping relevant icons bigger on the shopping map, with the other icons kept small and in a grayscale.