Marking system for Kids National Hospital

Problem description:

The Kids National Hospital (HNN - Hospital Nacional de Niños) didn’t have an interior marking system based on the traffic of people who usually visited it. This was an interesting situation to apply information architecture, because instead of being a software, this was a physical space. This was the final project I presented for my industrial design engineer degree in November 2013, mentored by Phd. Franklin Hernández-castro.

The design solution:

In order to get an information architecture for this, I developed an information system by applying some design methodologies. First of all, I created a content inventory of all the spaces in the hospital, classified by building and floor. The spaces could be medical specialities, services, offices, operation rooms, etc. You can see the content inventory on the right.

Then I started a detailed traffic analysis of the number of people who visited each space, this was the most important part of the process, because here you get to understand the behavior of the users by studying all the available data in the hospital, from existing statistics to field observation. 

The images on the left show a part of this analysis and were taken from my final presentation and final report.

At the end of the research I got a data organization that improved the user flow in the physical space of the buildings. The result was a group of signs strategically organized in order to improve the user experience inside of the hospital. To locate the signs, I also used the psychical maps of the buildings and analyzed the spaces in order to suggest a proper position for them.

Some of the positions for the information units are shown on the right.

At the end of the information design phase, I specified the way all the information should be organized in physical supports, taking into account the font size and the height of the support. It was necessary to study the ratio of the text size to the reading distance and the ergonomic analysis of height to the eye and vertical reach. Next you can observe some of the specifications given.

The main importance of this project is how visual communication is able to improve the user experience in physical spaces as complex buildings or wide locations. This could be applied in national or private organizations and is a real example of a better growth that directly affects in a positive way the user's convenience.