Lead User Experience Designer, Jennifer Brook is in New Zealand this week for Webstock 2012. She’ll be speaking and leading a workshop at the conference along with a catalogue of designers, developers and UX experts scheduled to host workshops and various talks during the conference. Follow her, as she’ll be documenting her trip in a two-part post here on our blog. Look out for tweets from @method_inc about the experience as well!
Follow The Line: Wayfinding in the Auckland Airport
I arrived at the Auckland, NZ airport yesterday after a 20-hour marathon of flights, not yet to my final destination. With a small headache and crick in my neck, I made it through customs and wandered out into the main lobby. My goal: check into my next flight.
I soon learned I’d first have to find my way to a nearby domestic airport.
I wandered outside to discover the finest coffee stand inside an Airstream, ordered a flat white, and turned to see the beginning of a green line with an accompanying sign indicating the direction of the second airport. The green line meandered past a green space with benches, trees, and grass, and then continued winding forward. Along the way signs indicated my progress with, not only the distance left to travel, but the estimated time it would take to get there. Nine minutes. Seven minutes. Two minutes.
For a bleary-eyed traveler, without access to her Google maps, this was a brilliant and simple breadcrumb. No thinking, mobile phone checking, or app downloading was required. I’m always in awe when I see a dead-simple, low-budget solution to what I’d imagine is a complex problem. A few signs and some cans of green paint had me wheeling in the right direction.
This put me in an excellent and inspired mood for my Iterative Prototyping workshop today where we explored some cheap and simple ways to prototype on mobile devices.
If you’re in Wellington this week for Webstock, I’ll be here through Friday and speaking on Thursday about publishing for iPad. Come by and say hi.