Social Innovation in Design Regarding Wayfinding
Social innovation is a huge aspect of wayfinding as it is needed to direct the flow of people around public buildings with ease. This is understood by the fact that successful wayfinding is not just generated in practice, it is done by testing designs in the real world and creating iterations from feedback gathered. I was tasked with redesigning the wayfinding system of the NHS Lauriston building as it had proven difficult in its wayfinding navigation for patients to get to their appointments. Through looking at the definition of social innovation in design and wayfinding, the history of social innovation in design and wayfinding and criticisms in designs of good and bad social innovation in design and wayfinding, I will explore whether social innovation is an important aspect to the current way we design and how it affects the future of design.
What is social innovation?
Social innovation in design is the act of generating new and innovative ideas that meets unmet needs. These are often ‘new combinations or hybrids of existing elements rather than being wholly new in themselves’ (Mulgan, G., Tucker, S., Ali, R. and Sanders, B.,2007) but are more effective and efficient than the current solutions. The creation of new innovations is often multidisciplinary and creates new relationships between people and communities involved across different disciplines. Social innovations are designs created with societies interests in mind rather than designing for consumption and generating profit. Design for social innovation focuses more on the important issues we face in society and how to tackle them such as: climate change, poverty and crime prevention. Whether these designs for social innovation are for profit or not, it means that design is not only driven by money, but by societal needs and the goals to create a more efficient and sustainable society. Designs for social innovation uses the same process as capitalist design but the end goal couldn’t be more different.
There are different types of social innovation; there is top-down which is where social innovation is largely driven by designers, and bottom- up where social innovation is mainly driven by communities and people. These different kinds of social innovation all strive towards the same thing — creating global goals to change society in new way and create solutions to unmet needs (Manzini, E., 2015)
What is wayfinding?
Wayfinding can be described as ‘a process during which people must solve a wide variety of problems in architectural and urban spaces that involve both decision making and decision executing’ this means that the general public are given the information needed to get them to the location they want to go, but it is up to the individual how they interpret the information given, which could result in them getting to their destination easily, or this could result in extra stress on the individual depending on how easy the wayfinding system is to follow.
Modulex (2007), the signmakers, describe wayfinding as:
The name given to the art and science which allow us to put the right information in the right place in order to provide the user with an easy journey through a possibly difficult environment.
This could be through many different resources, not only signage which people tend to assume is the main element of wayfinding. It could consist of maps, signs, symbols but also can combine these aspects in more innovative ways. The easier the navigation, the more at ease a user will feel while navigating a public building and this will reduce stress and anxiety. Carpman and Grant (1993) urge that a good wayfinding design should ‘go beyond mere signage and the use of colour codes to differentiate various hospital areas.’ And expects ‘an integration of coordinated elements, such as visible and easy-to-understand signs and numbers; clear and consistent verbal directions; consistent and clear paper, mail-out, and electronic information; and legible physical settings’. These different aspects contribute to how easy the navigation could be in any public setting.
Some innovative examples of design for social innovation are:
Slow Food
This is an example of top-down social innovation, as it derived from a structured design plan. Founded in 1989 by Carlo Petrini, Slow Foods was established to fight against and prevent the quickly diminishing local food cultures and traditions and to stand against the rise of fast food and large chain supermarkets in order to redirect attention to where food actually comes from and how food choices affect society. This is a good example of design for social innovation as it considered societal needs and created a goal to preserve tradition and improve society. This was done by establishing a problem and generating an innovative design solution to solve the problem.
NYC Community Gardens (USA)
This is an example of bottom-up social innovation, as it derived from people in the community coming together to introduce a new idea for change and to benefit society. NYC Community Gardens was started in the 70’s at a time where the city was experiencing financial difficulties which resulted in a lot of abandoned land. A group of citizens rallied together and planted ‘seed bombs’ in empty plots of land to encourage more trees being planted around the city, which lead to a year later there being the first community garden where citizens pay a donation to enjoy the land. Without this group of citizens getting together to create a change, there wouldn’t be hundreds of community gardens located around the city today. They did not use a structured design strategy, but rather, they came together to create their idea of a better world and introduced a new idea to meet unmet needs.
Both of these socially innovative designs use the same strategies. Top-down social innovation utilises skills and ways of thinking that these designers already have, to create responses to societal problems. Whereas bottom-up social innovation appears to be design-led. However, the people designing would not class themselves as designers but they often employ skill sets and ways of thinking which are considered to be key design processes.
Criticism of social innovation and wayfinding:
For wayfinding to work it is crucial to create an easy to follow, consistent system that follows the same style and placement and is minimal enough that it will not confuse people. An example of a bad wayfinding experience was the Lauriston building I was tasked with redesigning. The building was too confusing to navigate at the best of times but the lack of good wayfinding made it even more complicated to navigate and understand, resulting in patients getting lost and stressed especially if they were running late for their appointments. The system in place was originally consistent, with signs all in the same style and using the same typeface, but as the building was confusing to navigate and as departments changed location, staff started creating their own makeshift signs in different typefaces and in different locations which only added to the confusion as none of the signs were consistent anymore.
An example of good wayfinding design is the Tate Modern designed by Cartlidge Levene in 2016. The given brief was to design a wayfinding strategy connecting new and old spaces to create a single visitor experience. The design for social innovation produced, reinforces the space and connects the old building to the new building seamlessly and innovatively. It makes use of all wayfinding elements such as: landscape, entrances, internal signage, gallery entrances, level directories, posters, visitor map, skyline guide and donor plaques (Dandad.org., 2019). In an interview with Cartlidge Levene, they state that:
We always want to design something that employs the least number of signs possible. We want to have uncluttered spaces. If you start to introduce too many elements, that can be as difficult to understand as not having any signs at all. People ‘turn off’ and don’t see anything.
This is often the case in hospital wayfinding where the halls are cluttered with different posters and especially in the Lauriston building where the signs where cluttered and hard to differentiate between floors.
Conclusion:
In conclusion social innovation is a huge aspect of wayfinding as it is needed to direct the flow of people around public buildings with ease. This is understood by the fact that successful wayfinding is not just generated in practice, it is done by testing designs in the real world and creating iterations from feedback gathered. Through looking at the definition of social innovation in design and wayfinding, the history of social innovation in design and wayfinding and criticisms in designs of good and bad social innovation in design and wayfinding, it can be concluded that social innovation is an important aspect to the current design field and it is still progressing and changing which results in new and unthought of possibilities.
References:
Carpman, J. and Grant, M. (1993). Design that cares. Chicago: American Hospital Publ.
Dandad.org. (2019). Tate Modern | Cartlidge Levene | Tate Modern | D&AD Awards 2017 Pencil Winner | Wayfinding & Environmental Graphics | D&AD. [online] Available at: https://www.dandad.org/awards/professional/2017/graphic-design/25909/tate-modern/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].
Grownyc.org. (2019). Community Gardens | GrowNYC. [online] Available at: https://www.grownyc.org/gardens/our-community-gardens [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].
Manzini, E. (2015). Design, when everybody designs.
Mark, L. and Waite, R. (2019). Cartlidge Levene interview: ‘Wayfinding isn’t just about signs — it starts with the architecture’. [online] Architects Journal. Available at: https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/cartlidge-levene-interview-wayfinding-isnt-just-about-signs-it-starts-with-the-architecture/10017839.article [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].
Mohrsen, J. and Bundgaard, M. (2007). Modulex. Kolding: Handelshøjskole Syd.
Mulgan, G., Tucker, S., Ali, R. and Sanders, B. (2007). Social innovation. London: Young Foundation.
Slow Food International. (2019). Slow Food International. [online] Available at: https://www.slowfood.com/ [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].
