Environmental System: SNYDER-PHILLIPS HALL

Located in North Neighborhood, Snyder-Phillips Hall is a residential hall on Michigan State University’s (MSU) campus that houses the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) and one of the popular cafeterias on campus, The Gallery. This collaborative project was made to create a better wayfinding system for Snyder-Phillips Hall.

Problem

Snyder-Phillips has a lot to offer but students, visitors, faculty and staff find it difficult to navigate through the building. There is a wayfinding system in the building in the form of maps and signs but visitors still find it confusing to navigate from floor to floor and wing to wing.

Research

We researched Snyder-Phillips Hall by walking through the building and reviewing the wayfinding system that was in place and taking note of what did and didn’t work when navigating through the building. We also took measurements of the building so we could keep scale in mind when designing our new system.

Brainstorming

We then brainstormed possible design solutions through sketching. During this process we made sure to keep scale and our measurements in mind.

 Design

To make navigation through Snyder-Phillips easier, a color system was applied to different floors as well as arrows and names of places to ensure ease of navigation. For this project, we focused on the navigation system from the first floor to the basement of the Residential Hall.

Style Guide

Map Design

Wireframes

Design Visualization

This is what our design would look like if it was implemented into Synder-Phillips Hall.

Collaborative project with Samantha Kinjorski