First Floor Signage Study

In October 2022, the UX Team started exploring signage on the first floor. The impetus for this study was threefold: (1) COVID and the explosion of temporary signs, (2) to plan for the 1st Floor Reorganization and Renovation Project Committee; and (3) the relocation of the library's front entrance.

Research Question

• How could signage on the first floor be improved?

Methods

• We conducted a signage inventory and audit

• We conducted 17 guerrilla interviews with users in the space

• We added a question about the 1st floor to the annual Library Accessibility Services survey, and analyzed the results

What did we learn?

• We catalogued 92 signs. Each sign was assigned a Type (Temporary or Permanent) and a Category (Informational, Identification, Directional, Policy, etc.)
  • 58% of signs were tagged as Temporary and 42% Permanent
  • 47% of signs were tagged as Informational, 29% Identification, 10% Directional
• 58% of signs were identified as needing to be removed or updated
• The majority of signs were concentrated around the front entrance near the Ask Us Desk and the printers
• There was an overall lack of consistency in branding, design, and language
• The guerrilla interviews told us that users found the new location of the front entrance to be more inconvenient

Our recommendations

• Develop an overarching signage policy which defines our approach (what message are we sending to our users?), standards (branding, design, placement, language, tone, professionalism, etc.), processes, and responsibility and timing for regular sweeps and periodic audits
• Pertinent staff should work through our signage audit and remove, update, relocate, and create signs as we’ve identified
• Work with relevant campus stakeholders (IT Help Desk, Starbucks, etc.) to update their signage to comply with our new standards
• Update the following documents: Temporary Signage Policy, Room Booking Policy and Building Signage Templates
• Remind library staff of the Building Signage Templates to prevent the creation of handmade, unbranded, and unprofessional looking signs