Overview
This was my final capstone project in Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE). Our team was lucky to receive our top choice - working with the City of Bellevue Parks & Community Services on accessible signage!
HCDE capstones are structured across Winter and Spring Quarter. During Winter Quarter, we form teams and rank the projects we are most interested in, with the teaching team making the final pairings to match up each team and sponsor. Winter Quarter concludes with our project proposal. In Spring Quarter, four milestones make up the fast-paced capstone environment.
Over the course of this project, our team generated a comprehensive research report on the accessibility issues and opportunities for growth in the parks signage system, a detailed design system guidebook including references for color, universal symbology, information hierarchy, and finally, redesigns of the 3 most important signs in the parks system.
Role
User Research lead
Signage designer
Team
Annie Lu
Mia Oscarsson
Kelly Tong
Myself
Users
Bellevue Parks visitors
Bellevue Parks staff and rangers
Time
January - June 2024
The Challenge
How might we redesign Bellevue's parks and trails signage to be more accessible and visually engaging?
Process
Crafting a Capstone Proposal
During Winter Quarter, we focused on scoping the design challenge, meeting frequently with our sponsor to hash out the details.
What was the exact issue we were facing? What's feasible to do in 10 weeks? Bellevue has over 2,700 acres of parks and trails, an impressive size but daunting for our project.
After thorough discussions with the city sponsor, we decided to focus our research on Mercer Slough Nature Trails and Crossroads Park. Mercer Slough would represent the difficulty of navigating Bellevue trails, and Crossroads Park exemplifies Bellevue's community-centered parks system.
Our final research questions:
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How do our users understand what features to visit in a park and the different ways of getting from point A to point B?
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What gaps or barriers in signage and wayfinding keep people from fully enjoying our parks and trails?
A woodpecker at Mercer Slough!
Milestone 1 - Information Gathering
During this phase, Mia and I conducted two initial field studies of Mercer Slough and Crossroads Park, looking for navigation, wayfinding markers, and general park information signs. We determined five factors to pursue for more field studies: people, environment, weather, accessibility, and signage. Kelly and Annie then conducted comprehensive field studies at each of the two locations. In the meantime, Mia and I researched the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to understand current legal guidelines and government programs for accessibility.
Through thematic analysis of the field study observations, we found that despite abundant information signs at Crossroads, people rarely interacted with the park welcome signs, which were text-heavy with little information hierarchy. (Take a look on the right!)
At Mercer Slough, trails lacked caution indicators despite slippery conditions, and had few navigation signs. We identified a major safety concern: we were unable to find any trail numbers and emergency contact information, which would be dangerous for lost or injured hikers.
On a lighter note, back at Crossroads, we also found that many visitors ignore the dog leash-and-scoop signs---we witnessed it happening ourselves!
Milestone 2 - User Research
As project lead for this milestone, I dedicated myself to understanding our two main users: park visitors and parks staff.
Park visitors, of course, can help us understand their behaviors and accessibility concerns when interpreting the signage. Though parks staff are on the back-end of this experience, their viewpoint is valuable in helping my team and I understand the intention of their work and common issues they see in their day-to-day.
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 4 park visitors and 1 park staff. Within the park visitors, two were expert trail users (years or decades of use) and two were average park users from non-English speaking backgrounds.
The average park users struggled with the navigation signs. The expert trail users agreed that they only understood their park through trial and error rather than looking at signage. The park staff member noted that signs are difficult to clean and often get dusty and dirty, also impacting visibility.
During the interview, we provided the image of the park guidelines sign, and the interviewees critiqued the sign, encouraging more type hierarchy, symbology, and better color contrast.
"At the end of the bridge there were three other ways I could go to and there was absolutely no sign."
(Average user)
"Sometimes you just have to explore to learn, you know, what street [the trail ends at]."
(Expert user)
Milestone 3 - Design those signs!
Synthesizing our understanding of the sign system from our field studies, our research on ADA and Title VI, and our interview findings from park visitors and park staff... we finally began prototyping.
We focused on three signs we felt were most impactful to the park experience: the park guidelines sign, the pet leash-and-scoop sign, and trail navigation signs.
Color
In our research, park visitors commented that the pastel-teal sign color doesn't stand out well, and may cause issues for visitors who are colorblind. We also noticed opportunities for signal colors like orange or red for important rules.
Using the official City of Bellevue palette with proposed additional colors, we designed high contrast signs with color-coding for wayfinding and signal colors.
aBC
Information Hierarchy
The text-heavy nature of the original parks sign can lead park visitors to avoid reading the sign and miss out on important safety information.
To address this, we prioritized rules and implemented universal symbology to draw attention over long lines of text. (See below for more on universal symbology!)
In addition, we used persuasive communication and prosocial messaging to connect emotionally with park visitors: this new leash-and-scoop sign reminds them that it contributes to keeping parks safe and clean.
"Help keep our parks
safe and clean!"
Universal Symbology
I led the charge on researching and implementing universal symbology in our signage. Digging through archives of the National Parks Service, I found their universal symbol library, originally designed by Meeker & Associates. This library has seen widespread use by park organizations around the world.
Universal symbology is a vital part of signage and navigation. Not only does it support non-English speakers in an increasingly diverse world, but these symbols are much more clear and distinct than lines of text.
Milestone 4 - Showcasing Results
We presented our final design system, sign prototypes, and marketing video at the final capstone showcase! It was incredible seeing the 50 other projects from HCDE bachelor's and master's graduates. We got to celebrate each other and all the hard work we did, not just these past 6 months but for all four years of our degrees.
Finally, we separately delivered a formal presentation to the City of Bellevue Parks & Community Services Department. They were beyond thrilled with our final deliverables! Park officials commended us for accomplishing work that may have taken years with costly consultants. On top of that, they appreciated the strides we made to connect with the complicated world of the public---of thousands of citizens with completely different needs.
Ultimately, working with the City of Bellevue taught me the power of UX design in local spaces. UX design is deeply entrenched in tech, web, and mobile spaces---but UX is just as transformative in our communities and environment! By putting in all our knowledge from our HCDE degree, my team and I supported vital work in public safety, and creating a welcoming environment for all citizens.
Annie
Me!
Mia
Kelly
Learning Outcomes
Technical growth:
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Dealing with broad, varied, and at times harsh feedback from public citizens
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(anonymous surveys sent to thousands of people can invite strange responses!)
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Real-world user research experience
Personal growth:
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Navigating team conflicts: "forming and storming", then strengthening our bonds.
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Finding joy in UX design for the public sector