Interior Wayfinding Cognition: Workshop on Usability for Architects and Designers

Christoph Hölscher
Assistant Professor, Center for Cognitive Science, University of Freiburg, Germany [email protected]
This short workshop is an extension to the lecture “Wayfinding – Seeking a User Perspective for Architecture.” The starting point of this workshop is to make the case for applying cognitive science techniques to inform building design. After introducing key concepts and findings about human orientation and navigation in the built environment, I will showcase a number of studies from our group, ranging from basic research to industry consulting. Participants will learn about the range of methods available to collect data on human movement as input for evidence-based layout or signage design. This will include naturalistic observational studies in real buildings, and combine that with Virtual Reality simulations, laboratory based Eye-Tracking studies, and questionnaire research. In the hand-on part of the workshop, we will analyze a number of public buildings with respect to usability problems and discuss approaches to improve results in similar layout design tasks. Our group employs Space Syntax techniques as analytic tools for wayfinding studies, and I hope to foster a discussion of the benefits and limitations of such an approach both for scientific inquiry and design application. Please RSVP. The event complements the COGNI.TECTURES Lecture Series, and is sponsored by GSD Urban Mobilities. For more information contact Dido Tsigaridi.

Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected].

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