Way-finding Map with Franklinton Farms

User Research | User Testing | Visual Design

Project Objectives:

This was an interdisciplinary studio experience where I led a team of designers that partnered with Franklinton Farms to create a multifunctional way-finding system for Franklinton residents, Franklinton Farms staff, and volunteers to locate the various farms locations throughout the neighborhood.

Franklinton Farms is a nonprofit urban farm in Columbus, Ohio that utilizes sustainable agriculture to build a just local food system that improves food security and provides economic opportunity. (View more at franklintonfarms.org)

Programs Used:

Adobe Illustrator, Indesign, Photoshop

Final Map Design

The illustration-based identification of the farm locations is one of the key features of these posters.

When conducting research about the Franklinton Residents, it became known that there were people who could not read or had a low-reading level abilities. To make the poster more user-friendly to all audiences of various ages and reading abilities, colorful and engaging graphics were used to replace unnecessary amounts of reading.

Final Icon Illustrations

The Process

Meet the Team

The Design Process

Stakeholders

Initial Site Visit

Because it was our first time visiting Franklinton Farms, we took careful note of documenting what the experience was like. We immediately ran into a couple challenges that other users like visitors or first-time volunteers would likely have:

Visitors Are Confused Where To Go
There was no map by the parking lot to inform us where the garden locations were at, so we had to wander around to find them because we didn’t know where to go.
Map Structure is Not User-Friendly
As we continued to wander around the neighborhood area, we stumbled into a couple different garden locations. Some of them had these “kiosk” structures for the map. However, In the pictures, you can see their current structure had many potential pain points or barriers for people with different physical mobility. The height also made it difficult for young children to read.
Map Content is Not User-friendly
People with different reading levels (especially in low-income areas like Franklinton) can’t or won’t read the information.
Below I also analyze how the visual organization of the information on the map is also poorly done.

Pain Points of Previous Map

Poor Text Hierarchy
(Not enough contrast between type so it’s hard to differentiate between the garden locations)
Too Much to Read
(Word-based identification of the farm locations makes usability difficult for people with different reading abilities)
Poor Content Hierarchy
(Garden locations need to be the primary focus but are way too small while Mt Carmel takes up a large amount of visual space)
Unnecessary Information
(People don’t need to know how to get there by the highway if they are already looking at the map on the Franklinton Farms location)