Have you ever gone to places for the first time and thought to yourself. "Where the hell am I!?" When going to new places you have never been before you would want to have signs, maps and service guide that are available, legible and ones that you can understand. Otherwise you would be like "Am i lost? How do you get to this place!?" These are the times when signage should be helpful. But. Are they really helpful? Do they help you get to your destination? What makes a good and bad signage? Lets find out!
As a student at Ravensbourne University at North Greenwich, I know my way around the area as I commute every week and it is now easy to get to my destination. However, for those that it is there first time coming to North Greenwich to see, lets say, The O2 Arena, the river, and the University. Would they be able to go to thesse places without breaking a sweat or would they be scratching their head in front of a map wondering which direction to take.
North Greenwich Station provides good information for location but they are not enough. They have signs that will lead people to the O2 but what about the other places such as The Emirates, the river that is located at the back, Ravensbourne University? Therefore, as a collective, we have decided to tackle this problem by providing a solution of having a clearer signage system.
I have produced an illustration ideas that could possibly used as a useful signage system. This would help remind me of ideas I've thought of while visually designing each ideas to make it work.
As a collective, we have created a survey for those who commute to answer. These question will help us understand the problem North Greenwich is having. This would also provide information to how many commuters travel to North Greenwich per week and to also know where they are going. These questions would also help support our ideas as the response could be use as a reference.
The responses we received from the survey. After having to ask the people who commute, I have know understand what is the problem North Greenwich is having with their signage system. It has been proof by the people we have talked to that there is a lack of signage system here at North Greenwich. North Greenwich just does not have enough signage system that would help tourist, disabled and other target audience move their own way around the area. After having spoken to North Greenwich customer service lady, she had been honest with us and told us that the designer who designed the area of North Greenwich assumed that everyone who comes here would be able to understand English. But that is not the case for most of the time. There are thousands of people who come to North Greenwich per week and most of them are foreign, international people. Therefore, they should provide information where it allows other customer to be able to understand the information clearly.
Looked at examples of effective and useful signage system. These examples had given me an insight to what is a good signage system and a bad one. These example are effective to where they are located. For example, the signage system for Japan airport is designed based on the upcoming Olympics therefore, tracks can be seen everywhere the airport. The designer have clearly put in mind the event that is about to take place.
