Early exploration in 2021

This project was submitted by a staff member who has had many conversations with students and staff about the poor signage and direction around Pukeahu campus. After some walk arounds and ideation sessions with Co-Lab facilitators we decided the best place to start would be to reach out to our Massey community. Campus Co-Lab facilitators hosted a rapid ideation workshop with students and staff. We focused on how we might improve on our campus way-finding.
First we gathered what is working well about our way-finding already. Some key points were;

• Large signage at the many entrances
  
• Consistent system for labelling buildings, floors, and rooms
  
• The buildings with their numbers and floor letters painted large on the walls in bright colours are really effective
  

Then we thought about what the main problems are/ what we're missing. The most important of these to our group were;

• There's no digital way finding
  
• Pathways aren't clear - in particular there is a disconnect between the north & south ends of campus
  
• We don't have a main entrance
  
• Some maps and signs are out of date or incorrect
  

Some solutions we came up with are;

• 'I'm looking for' kiosks - digital maps that show walking distances and give directions
  
• 'Follow the rainbow around campus' - each block/area would be assigned a colour. These could be used to indicate pathways between blocks as well as display the number of each building
  
• Signage displaying what departments or activities are located in buildings - ownership of this being given to the communities within the building
  
• Digital signage could be applied across campus - this would allow for signs to change and contain up to date information
  

Through this discussion we were able to connect with staff who have been overseeing a project to unify Massey's way finding nationwide as part of the Campus Development Plan. The intention is to still acknowledge the identities of the individual campuses. In 2019 Massey engaged with Diadem, an international company offering wayfinding expertise for large public buildings, open spaces, universities, convention centres etc. The scope of work to be done was broken down into five stages;

1. Review and recommendations
   
2. Strategy
   
3. Concept
   
4. Developed design
   
5. Tender documentation
   

Steps 1-3 have been completed to date.
Moving forward we hope to contribute more to conversations around the wider Massey Campus Development projects and continue highlighting the needs and identity of the Wellington campus. If you're interested in getting involved in these kōrero or you've got some way finding ideas please get in touch! We would love to have you on board.