David Silver, a professor of media studies at the University of San Francisco and former advisor of mine, has an excellent post regarding efforts to improve the Seattle Public Library's usability by enlisting the help of wayfinding professionals. I especially like that he takes umbrage with a Seattle PI reporter who suggested wayfinders just make signs:
my one problem with murakami's article is the way she patronizingly defines the growing field of wayfinding: Faulk is a professional "wayfinder" -- which is a fancy way of saying she makes signs. um, no - wayfinding is a lot more than that, as murakami should know, especially after writing such an interesting article about what's at play in this case of wayfinding. wayfinding is about what is being offered, what people are trying to find, and where and how the two meet. as our cities, spaces, and structures get more dense, complex, commercialized, and commodified, sometimes we need some help to just find our way. wayfinding, especially the kind i've seen lynne do with the gates foundation, seattle's parking meters, and now with the downtown library, gets us on our way and pushes us in the most interesting direction.
I have a lot of thoughts about the relationship between "designers" and "users," some of which I'll post here once they're a bit more fully formed. But I did want to point out that I wish there were more folks in communication/media studies interested in these sorts of issues. After all, design - whether it be architectural, graphic, experience, or otherwise - is about communicating to/with audiences. I think both the design community and media scholars have a lot to teach each other, and it's too bad they're not talking (yet).
