Wayfinding
and Egress Issues: Conflicts and Concords between Researchers and Designers
In matters of wayfinding and egress, researchers analyze orientation abilities, navigation
strategies, route choice preferences, wayfinding schemes, behavioural attitudes,
cognitive inclinations, etc. of the visitors, and physical variables of the
environments including signage. In their effort to be precise, they focus
individually on a limited number of specific variables. On the other hand,
building designers are simultaneously concerned with many issues and often rely
on heuristic learning. In their scheme of thinking, wayfinding and egress are
important concerns but perhaps not the major ones.
In this situation,
how can research results be made more relevant and appropriate? What level of
specificity is useful for architects? Do conflicts arise between research and
design; and if so, how are they resolved? The EDRAMOVE session will focus on
such questions. It will be in the format of a panel discussion where wayfinding researchers, wayfinding consultants and
architects will participate. Following
5-minute presentations by each panelist on the conflicts and concords
between researchers and designers regarding wayfinding and egress issues, the
audience will be invited to participate in a discussion with the panelists. The
moderator will introduce the session issues and summarize the discussion
including outcomes and recommendations.
Panelists: 1. Stephen Boelter (Boelter Design Group, WI)
2.
Simon Buchner, (University
3. Jake Pauls, (Jake Pauls Consulting Services in Building Use and Safety, MD), (link to paper 1 and paper 2)
4.
Greg Barker,
Moderator: Jerry Weisman (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
Organizers: Saif
Haq, (