Design and quality / Stretch

From Simple Design to Strong Work

Follow a wayfinding project from its essential problem through a simple draft and a more developed design, then judge how particular features represent broader qualities.

READING 1 OF 23 focus words

Build from the essential need

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Finding a clear route from the entrance to each room is the elemental problem in a student team's wayfinding project for a shared arts building. An unsophisticated first map uses rough rectangles and plain arrows, conveying the basic arrangement without polished drawing or technical complexity. The later map's sophistication appears in its coordinated symbols, carefully chosen contrasts, and treatment of routes that change between floors. The team checks each version with someone unfamiliar with the building, asking where the drawing helps and where it still leaves a decision unclear.

The elemental need remains the same when the team adds a second staircase to the map: a visitor must be able to choose a workable route. The unsophisticated draft is still useful for testing whether the room relationships are correct before more design work is added. Greater sophistication helps only when the new symbols and layers make the information easier to follow. After observing a visitor hesitate at one junction, the team revises that point and checks it again before preparing the final display.

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Look away from the passage. Can you explain each focus word in your own words?

Original fictional passages for vocabulary practice.

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