Wayfinding: an Australian perspective

Thursday 8 July 2021

About this event

Want to find out what’s happening in Australia’s wayfinding design and research worlds? Join us for two unique early lunchtime talks at 12:00 BST (21:00 AEST) on Thursday 8th July 2021 on Zoom.

Mark Janetzki shares wayfinding work from the Diadem design studio in Melbourne. Diadem is an award-winning global branding & wayfinding agency, with offices across Australia as well as in New Zealand and Hong Kong. Dr Andrew Haig gives an overview of his doctoral research into how we build spatial knowledge, why using paper maps is good for us, and what his research revealed about using landmarks with mobile maps to improve pedestrian navigation.

Mark Janetzki is a Melbourne-based Creative Director at Diadem. Diadem’s multi-disciplinary teams look for inspiration in the strangest of places and take a user-centric approach to understand how people experience, navigate and make connections within their clients’ unique places, and in cityscapes. Early-stage engagement on the $3.6billion Queens Wharf Brisbane redevelopment increased their impact and enabled them to apply a user-experience filter on design conversations to ensure each space is easily understood by all user groups. Mark’s talk explains Diadem’s wayfinding process and shows us their design solutions for Queens Wharf Brisbane and other recent projects.

Andrew Haig’s PhD study investigated how photographs of landmarks in the interface of mobile maps might aid pedestrian wayfinding in unfamiliar outdoor locations. he found that when using mobile maps for wayfinding, two factors hindered the acquisition of spatial knowledge. Firstly, the automated route instructions are followed passively, with little attention paid to the region around us. Secondly, the small screen of the mobile phone depicts the route within a fragment of a larger map, so the surrounding context is not in clear view. Presenting landmarks within mobile maps meant they could be matched to the real world, keeping users actively engaged in the wayfinding process. Three studies investigated if mobile maps with landmarks aid pedestrians when finding their way in a novel environment. Andrew explains key spatial knowledge theories, the use of paper maps, and what his research revealed about wayfinding using mobile maps.

About our speakers

Andrew Haig has a background in identity design, typography, print publication, web, and exhibition design. He has almost four decades of design experience equally divided between academia and business. Andrew currently teaches at Swinburne University’s School of Design and Architecture in Melbourne where he is the Course Director of the interdisciplinary Master of Design programme. He recently was a partner in a Melbourne-based communication design consultancy where he worked with clients from the media, environment, entertainment, education, and museum sectors.

Mark Janetzki’s approach to design is informed equally by the pragmatic and the creative. Building on 30+ years of experience in Australia’s leading design studios, Mark has executed brand, spatial, experiential, exhibition, online, and printed communication projects for clients in Australia, Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He has won numerous awards from, among others, the New York Type Directors Club and SEGD.

Register for the event

This talk is free for SDS members. For non-members, the ticket cost is £10 per person. To join our Zoom talk, please get in touch with our administrator Kate at enquiries@signdesignsociety.co.uk for the event link, ID, and password.

Not a member, unable to join us for the live-streamed event but would like to watch it at a time convenient to you? We now offer the option to watch the event recording on a time-limited basis for the cost of a £10 ticket. Please email Kate at enquiries@signdesignsociety.co.uk for more information.

[Note: this event will be recorded and available to paid-up SDS members via our Talks Archive within a week of taking place.]

Location

Via Zoom (online)

Date/time

08 Jul 2021 12:00

Price : £10.00

Already a member? See details above for booking details.