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.

The basic map designs with landmarks

On the pictures below there can be seen the basic design for the map. The map itself will stay the same with the museum route aswell as the shopping route. They will differ in color and direction of the route and the landmarks that are used. On the museum route only the landmarks with historic value will be shown and on the shopping route only the landmarks with commerce value will be shown. The only landmark that will be shown on both the maps will be the new church, because it is a well known building within Delft and it will make clear to people where the centre of the old city of Delft is located.

The design of the recommended routes

Two different versions of a pedestrian map of the centre of Delft have to be designed in such a way that it influences the behavior of the users. On each map a different walking route will be clearly recommended and the two versions will alternate every day.

On the image below there are shown different designs of the same route, clockwise and counterclockwise.

As can be seen, all the routes consist out of just one color. I have chosen to do so, so people won’t get distracted and confused by the use of various bright colors. It is important that the recommended route really stands out of the map, so I have chosen for a bright, pink color, but because this is the only flashing color on the route, the map itself is still clearly readable and the different icons and landmarks that we will use on the map won’t go unnoticed.

There are different ways to manipulate someone to take a certain route within the map.
But because the two different maps have to look similar on first sight, the differences between the two will have to be subtle.
On each of the six different designs of the route shown above, there can be seen that the route contains a gap on the cross-section. This will make people follow the route going forth in one piece, because that will be the most logical for them.
Of course a clear and well known way to show a direction is by using arrows, as are used in the two lower left corner designs. Another way to clearly make a certain direction visible is to start busy and slowly bring it down, like the two designs in the lower right corner, or to start big and slowly bring it down in size, like the footprint design in the upper right corner, or to start with a bright color and slowly make a gradient in it going to transparency.
When I look at the six different designs, the one in the upper left corner speaks the most to me. Because this route consists of just one piece and has the cleanest design, the map will look trustworthy and the route will not steel all the attention away from the rest of the map and all the icons and landmarks. But because of the bright color pink the route still stands out and it will become clear to every visitor of Delft which way they have to walk by following the route from bright color going to transparency.

Improved concepts

Improvements

• One poster should show both tours, culture and commerce
• The pictures should be more involved into the map
• More enphasis on the culture/commerce difference is needed
• Something should manipulate the people to walk one of the purposed tours
• General icons and buidlings icons should be more analogue

Traced map

The museum walk

I've done the museum walk and some estimates how long it will take. I think visiting 2 musea is the best way to spend a day no more. By the time you reach the shopping part, you'll probably be tired and want to go home.

Start: total time 0

Walk to Prinsenhof
total time: 0:10

Visit Prinsenhof
total time: 1:50

Walk to Vrouw Jutteland
total time: 2:00

Visit Nieuwe Kerk
total time: 3:00

Walk to Beestenmarkt
total time: 3:06

Have a drink at Beestenmarkt
total time: 3:45

Walk to Bastiaansplein
total time: 3:55

Walk to station
4:10

Pre concept

Here we go: the first concepts.

What's missing:
- different colour museum route
- different direction arrows museum route
- maybe icons on more locations?

What could be improved:
- quality icons (I did this in photoshop and the JPEG Kim Thy send was fairly small)

3D Gebouwen

Hierboven 7 belangrijke gebouwen/standbeelden in 3D voor op de kaart van Delft.

Icon sketches

More Pictures

Because of the great weather today, I decided to take more pictures that we can use. There are too many to upload, so I added a way to number the pictures if you want the original file. I have portrait versions of most pictures as well.

I will be using these pictures to make some themes for the top and bottom of our map which I'll show you later!

Quick Visual Tour

Here is a quick intro with some of the pictures I took of the route and it's highlights:

Starting point: Delft central station













Museum: Legermuseum

Theater: de Veste
























Cinema: Must See

Shopping stores: Bastiaansplein

Food and Drinks: Beestenmarkt

Museum: Nieuwe Kerk

Shopping: Choorstraat

Museum: Oude Kerk

Musea: Prinsenhof

All foto's can be downloaded here in original size.

First meeting

Planning

· Upload pictures from route on blog

· Look for examples of tourist maps

· Time schedule/indication of both routes

· Design icons

· Design style of map

· Collage of inspirational photographs

· Design land marks for interesting buildings

· Combine tasks into concept

Description assignment

In assignment 2 of the course Visual Communication Design we will design a pedestrian map for the city of Delft that will influence the behavior of the users.

Two versions of the pedestrian map will be presented alternating every day at the Delft central station. One will show the ‘museum route’ clockwise and the other one the ‘shopping route’ anticlockwise.

The effect of the two versions should be that one day significantly more visitors will follow the museum route than the shopping route and the other way around.

In the end we will carry out a research to test the behavior of the user on the two different maps.

With this blog we will keep you up to date of our procedure.