IH02-MinhaajKhan
From IEOR 170 Spring 2007
[edit] Individual Homework 2 - “Can you tell me how to get….how to get to….?”
I’m currently in my 9th semester at Berkeley so I guess I’m probably considered a “super-Senior”. Clearly I’ve been here a long time so I know my way around campus relatively well. So I always find it funny that even though I’ve been in Berkeley for quite a while, I still have to look up the on-line campus map to find out where a building is that I don’t often go to. There are so many buildings on campus and I always pride myself on my great sense of direction, but at one point or another early on in my days at Berkeley, I got lost. I’m usually on campus a lot during the semester, and in every semester since I began going to Cal I’ve always had multiple people ask me for directions on how to get somewhere on campus, both college students and visitors.
I’m sure as you read this you can recall a time when you were in your first couple of years at Berkeley that you had to ask someone for directions, or maybe someone asked you. If this has never happened to you, either your fragile mind has chosen to forget the traumatic event of being lost (I’m totally kidding of course) or you have all your classes in one place and don’t need to find your way anywhere else. However, ask yourself this; if you were on campus and had to get to Giannini, Girton, or Koshland Hall for a very important event, could you do it in less than 10 minutes? Unless you’ve been fortunate enough to have a class there at some point in your life, I can bet that not only would it take you a long time, but it would be near impossible without asking someone who knows where those buildings are for directions.
UC Berkeley is a world renowned university and I’m certain that it gets more visitors on average in a day, than most other schools in the country. If it can be difficult for intelligent Berkeley students to navigate around campus, imagine how difficult it is for visitors? It’s pretty easy to find where the UC Berkeley campus is because someone can always point you in a direction and you just walk that way until you get there; but once you’re in the maze of hilly campus walkways, wooden bridges, and hidden dirt path roads, things can get very confusing. In fact of all the colleges I’ve visited, Berkeley is the toughest to navigate, and considering the lack of visible signs or maps (around the campus not just at the gates) to point you in a direction, it is almost impossible to find your way to a specific place relatively quickly without someone else’s aid. On top of it, most buildings have their names printed on the doorways to entrances and nowhere else. So even if you’re at the building you’re looking for, you still might not know you’ve arrived at your destination. In fact, it was a little after sunset last fall and this elderly couple walked up to me and asked me where Wheeler Hall as they didn’t know we were standing right next to the building.
People hate getting lost, especially in new surroundings. When tools aren’t readily visible to guide someone, whether it is on some street, at a mall, or a public university, people can get easily frustrated and this reflects negatively on wherever it is they’re lost. Although campus maps are available on certain edges of campus (I think there is one on Sproul Plaza, one near North Gate, and one near Center street entrance on West side of campus), people don’t have photographic memories and visitors will have an even tougher time figuring out where to go without the familiarity of walking around campus. As I was thinking about a topic for this assignment the other day, I saw someone park their car and walk 5 minutes to the closest map on the Center Street entrance. When we got to the map (which was on a large blue board), the writing was very small and to make matters worse the map was dirty. His frustration clearly showed as he was in a hurry and thus ended up asking me for directions. For this reason, the UC Berkeley campus needs a new way for both students and visitors to find their way around campus with ease, both during the day and at night.
A solution for this problem needs to take the two groups I’ve already discussed into account; the college student and the visitor. As most college students generally visit the same exact places every time and they can find new buildings in references to areas and other buildings they already know (e.g. like if someone says that building is on North Side or near Evans, students have an idea of where to go); it might make more sense to find a solution that focuses on the needs of visitors. In this way, finding a solution for a visitor will in itself be a solution for students who already go here. Generally visitors to UC Berkeley comprise of people attending lectures, those who’re here for an athletic or any other campus event, perspective students visiting with family or friends, high school students, professors from other schools, tourists, etc. Cleary the educational background of visitors varies as does their available time and motivation. As it is generally very difficult to find parking in and around campus without paying a hefty fee, most people visiting campus for an on-campus activity or event (lecture, sports, or anything else) are usually in a hurry and want to get to where they’re going as soon as possible. I’m sure the University has done something or another to help people get around, but from nearly the two-dozen or so people who’ve asked me for directions on campus in my tenure at Berkeley, there is clearly a gap between a person’s goal of finding their way to a place on campus and the means to execute that goal (gulf of execution). For this reason, there must be an improvement in design for people, both students and visitors, to find their way around campus at anytime of day. Not only is this possible, but something that should certainly be undertaken to make the campus better for everyone who visits it.
Potential Solution Sketch
With an abundance of streetlamps on campus, would placing markers to direct students and visitors towards buildings be a possible solution? If so, how might this be implemented and how will directions be presented to minimize confusion and make it easy to use?
