IH02-BrianLoo

From IEOR 170 Spring 2007

Homework 2 – Individual Project Proposal

I. Problem Description

In helping make the Cal community better, I am focused on making Campus Access Information boards better utilized and more accessible to visitors. At many campus entrances, there is a giant billboard to welcome visitors by providing tons of information about the campus and are titled, “Campus Access Information.” I think these information boards are very intimidating, uninviting, and hard to get the information you need quickly without reading a giant blurb. These billboards provide a lot of information but also leave out some important information. In addition, these boards are costing the University money for maintenance, cleaning and occasional updating. Through general observations, the boards have low utilization due to the overall design of the board. If the University is going to spend money each year to maintain these boards, they should be designed in a fashion to increase utilization and encourage use to help visitors easily.

II. Related Companies/Websites

http://www.berkeley.edu/visitors/

III. Target User Group

My target user group would be students, staff, and visitors of the campus. Out of that group it would be for people who do not know the campus and campus shuttles like the back of there hand or just need a reminder of where a building is. For people familiar with the general campus, the target is people who need to access information about the campus and how to get around quickly. For people unfamiliar with the campus, they are going to want an introduction to the campus and where they should go or how they can find a location they are heading towards. Tourists might also want an introduction to the campus along with information on the points of interest and visitor services. Additionally, prospective students would need information on where they can go to learn about the university, their academic interest, and what services are available to students and visitors.

IV. Problem Context and Forces

Various aspects in addition to the poor layout of the signs contribute to making them ineffective, underutilized, and uninviting. The location of some of the billboards play a role as they are off to the side, situated in the mud, or obstructed by surrounding plants, poles, flyers, and other obstructions. All these aspects contribute to whether a person uses the information board or not, as it affects the overall atmosphere and appeal. For example, the signs in the mud on a rainy day are uninviting as visitors must stand at a distance or walk in the mud to use them. In addition, the overall maintenance of these boards plays a role as if they are run down and outdated they become obsolete and ineffective. At night, lighting is crucial for night visitors to access the information and when the lights are not operating properly, this makes it very difficult to utilize the boards. Besides outsides factors and aspects, personal user aspects contribute to the problem. Users are required to have a general education level background to understand the use and function of these signs. Their general background needs to include the ability to read, understand how a map grid system works, and how to use a phone to take full advantage of this resource. Besides education, the users need to be willing to look for help and know generally what information they would need to get their desired results.

In addition to outside factors and user ability, campus politics and regulations play a role in the design and development of the boards. Since the information board has such a wide range of user groups, many different campus organizations want their input on what makes the best board and what information is needed. With so many inputs on the design, conflicts arise and too much information is placed on the board as each group has different views and opinions for self-interest. Some groups that seem to be involved in the development of the boards are UC Berkeley Bear Transit, UC Police Department, and UC Berkeley Visitor center. (During the design stage of a new board, I would work closely with these organizations to ensure that all their concerns are addressed).

If the boards were not present, there are other solutions that visitors could use to locate the information desired. Additional resources include the visitor center, UC Berkeley students and staff, local stores, and the visitor drive-up windows at the West and East Gate entrances. However, with these other solutions, none of them are self-help like the information board. As a result, this causes several other issues such as if the visitors are shy to approach people or cannot locate anyone around them. So revamping and redesigning the information boards for campus visitors to increase utilization provides an additional self-help resource that can help make UC Berkeley a more friendly and accessible place.

Finally, there is the issue of the designers to get feedback. This is a crucial problem as there is no way to determine how effective and helpful the boards are without hearing back from the users. A new design of the board should encourage people to report outdated or incorrect information along with giving feedback on how useful the current design is. Having such a system will let the designing team know they need to re-evaluate the boards to make them even easier or more helpful.

V. Possible Solutions

Using new technology may seem appealing to help increase the ease of the boards, but just modifying the design should be the first step. To increase the general utilization and get feedback from the users with current technology can be collected and then eventually used to upgrade to a technological system. As with current use, it does not seem to be cost effective to invest high capital in upgrading the boards, but it would be more efficient to redesign them and gain user feedback. However, if a lot of capital is available, new digital boards can be purchased and be touch screen. Using such a system, will allow for instant feedback as it can record the time spent on the machine and can offer a feedback section on the interface where users can give input. In addition, at the bottom of each page of information, the system can ask if the information was helpful or solved their issue. Another benefit of a high technological system is that it would be easy to update the information once it became outdated.

Through personal experience, observations, and small interviews, the main issue was the boards had too much information. For example, the boards talk about where to park and parking on campus, however, none of the boards are accessible via car but are located on pedestrian paths and shuttle bus only roads. So parking information is not needed as for one to even get the information on parking, one would need to already have parked their vehicle to look at the board. Another example is that the boards include 3 campus maps, one covering everything, and 2 for bus service. The two smaller maps for bus service should be cropped instead of cramming the entire map on the board. If there is no bus service to that area or the surrounding area of the bus route, it does not need to be on the map as they can use the main map of the Berkeley area for reference. For addressing maintenance and outdated information, a general template of the board should be designed and then printed out a certain number of times each year to make sure the boards present well and are updated.

To address the issue on feedback, a comment and concern message with the Visitor Center’s phone number should be provided so users can call in and report outdated information. The incentive for people to call in is the idea that they are helping the University out, which plays off school spirit and Berkeley pride. Users can also call in for further assistance if they still cannot find the information on the board. By measuring the number of calls received daily, designers can determine how effective the boards are especially if many calls are regarding help with information on the board.

Campus Access Information Board

View from street of North Gate, Board is not in visible as it off to the side facing campus.

North Gate Info Board located in dirt and blue light blocks it

Initial Proposed Re-Design Sketch