Workshop 2: Indoor wayfinding assistance

September 15, Bremen, Germany

Our program is online now: please click here to download the PDF!

About the Workshop

Most people have experienced complex buildings and had a hard time finding their way through them. There are manifold reasons for complexity, e.g., vast size, unconventional architectural layout, insufficient signage, or furnishing. Many situations can be addressed with a matching wayfinding aid ranging from non-technical (e.g., static signage) to technical solutions (e.g., indoor navigation systems or digital signage).

The focus of this hands-on interactive workshop is intense discussion of indoor wayfinding assistance systems in the light of architectural particularities, signage, wayfinding situations, and tasks. A goal of this workshop is the collection of a joint corpus of buildings and spatial layouts that are difficult to navigate, use cases for real-world wayfinding problems, and potential solutions

On the workshop day itself we will organize an excursion on location to the GW2 building on the Bremen University Campus. This building is infamous for its bad architectural decisions and strange signage. Participants will try to discover the worst architectural features, most complex decision points, most confusing signage, salient landmarks (and funniest graffiti).  We will compare the collected scenes to the submitted contributions and discuss by means of paper and pen solutions about possible technical and non-technical solutions

Contributions

We call for contributions in the form of reports on buildings/indoor spaces that are difficult to navigate due to architectural complexity, insufficient signage, or any other particularities. The report should contain photos and comment on possible problems for wayfinding. During the workshop we will discuss the contributions with respect to potential technical or non-technical solutions. Please follow the suggested format of this sample contribution of GW2 using this Word-template and send your contribution (preferably .doc format for editing) to: indoor.workshop@gmail.com

All contributions will be compiled and made accessible to the participants before the workshop day. During the workshop we will discuss the submissions in groups and try to identify best technical and non-technical solutions through pen and paper sketches.

Important Dates

Submission of contributions: August 15

Workshop day: September 15

Organizers

Falko Schmid, University of Bremen

Christoph Stahl, DFKI Bremen

Contact

send email to: christoph.stahl (at) dfki.de