In this month’s enewsletter we discuss what wayfinding principles we apply to park settings. Read the feature article below and read the full newsletter here.
Spring is officially here! Though we won’t be shocked if there’s one last off-season snowstorm, we are looking forward to spending more time outside. In a place like New York where private outdoor space is a luxury, public parks play an important role in the health and well-being of city residents. Impressively, 99% of New Yorkers live within a ten-minute walk to some variety of park, well above the national average of 55%. The importance of parks has been heightened during the pandemic, and they will continue to serve an essential need in the post-pandemic world.
Wayfinding in parks requires a unique balance between navigation and exploration, an approach that is contrary to wayfinding in other locations like hospitals or transportation hubs. In a park setting, we want to leave room for visitors to make their own discoveries, while in another context we would aim to quickly and clearly direct a person from point A to B. This approach of “supported discovery” calls for a unique combination of wayfinding tools that help visitors feel comfortable enough to confidently explore the park on their own.
MAPPING THE LANDSCAPE
Maps play a critical role for first-time or even seasoned visitors, providing an overview of the park, identifying key destinations, and highlighting multi-modal routes such as biking vs walking. In our recent work with the Randall’s Island Park Alliance, not only did we update the existing maps to include newly developed park features, but we determined that the directional wayfinding to destinations didn’t add value to the information the maps already provided throughout this 516-acre park. In addition to all the park destinations and amenities, the maps also include walking radius rings so that visitors can understand roughly how long it will take to get to a point of interest.
NAVIGATION BY LANDMARKS
Named landmarks and site features are also an integral part of a park’s wayfinding system. Have you ever tried to meet a friend in Prospect Park who told you they were waiting under “this big tree?” Including landmarks on maps orients visitors and provides unique and locatable gathering points. Similarly, naming different park features creates in-park destinations of interest. In Central Park, maps include landmarks like Bethesda Fountain or Alice in Wonderland, and on Randall’s Island you’ll find a number of named areas including the Salt Marsh or the Freshwater Wetlands.
LEVERAGING DIGITAL MEDIA
Digital media is becoming an integral part of comprehensive wayfinding systems, and parks are no exception. The parks of New York City are some of the most visited urban parks in the country – Randall’s Island attracts over 4 million visitors per year, Prospect Park, over 10 million, and Central Park, a whopping 42 million visitors per year. First-timers might want to plan their visit in advance, and making maps and other resources available online or through apps is an efficient way to meet demand at this scale. Central Park has a series of maps available for download each tailored to specific needs, including their Access Map which has useful information like slope-grade and accessible amenities, and is toned for those with color-blindness.
Photo Credit: Barrett Doherty