OUGD601 SUPERMARKET MOCK UP, FEEDBACK & FINAL WAY FINDING DESIGN

After producing the initial designs, a supermarket plan was designed (shown in the image below) from imagination although loosely based on Leeds Merrion Centre Morrisons for the way finding to be based around, to give it some context.

The road and simple character idea was initially experimented with, however even with clear destinations, it was still confusing where to place them to go in the right direction, and if I am struggling to understand customers definitely won't follow it when they have a few seconds to process the information.

Feedback:
Showing the initial ideas and supermarket mock up to a group of peers and my tutor, the general consensus was that the foot print and fruit and veg ideas worked a lot more effectively than the people ones, as they were a lot more simple and therefore easier to understand and follow.
Someone also commented that the people don't add anything to the way finding, there's no real need for them, they are just an extra complexity to the design that isn't necessary.
It was really helpful to get other people's views on these designs as I was focusing more so on the people than the other ideas, blinded by how well they worked in the previous brief.
Following on from this feedback more focus will be made on the foot print and fruit and veg ideas.

Based on the initial sketch a digital version was produced, mapping out where each section of the supermarket would be using different colours. Then, from the entrance, lines depict the fastest route to each different section. As you can see this gets pretty confusing, so a different method of directing people to each section must be found. 

A different system was produced in a line that goes down every aisle in the supermarket. This is a lot easier and a lot simpler to follow.

Close up. The edges are rounded to make it appear friendlier. 

Feet were produced on a largely varying scale to depict every possible shoe size.

These shoes were places on a circular motion around the line. The arrows show the different directions of the feet. 

The feet were made white so they would appear as cut outs in the vinyl sticker as opposed to being printed on which isn't possible to do. 

Close up.

These feet were then placed into the way supermarket mock up. What is immediately noticed is that it is not very colourful or bold to look at, and the colours aren't very noticeable either. Also, as the feet are cut out of a background, there's no scope for varying the colour to correspond with the food sections, so it's all one colour which wouldn't be very navigable.

To rectify the lack of colour, the food sections were filled in with colour as opposed to just being outlines, which makes each section a lot more clear. Also the way finding was filled in a different colour orange, a unisex but happy colour, to make it stand out more. However this colour still doesn't highlight the different sections within the way finding, even though now it loots a lot more cheerful.

Close up.

Final way finding:

Instead, the feet turned into the vinyl stickers and the background removed, which allowed for more colour variation. The feet in front of each food section were the same colour, and when the feet are moving away form one section and to another, in the middle of an aisle, the colour is that of the section it is heading towards. Also, when there are two different colours on an aisle, the feet closest to that food section are the same colour, shown in the pink and light brown colours. This makes the feet a lot more navigable and useful, and adds more colour to the way finding as well, more up lifting. 

Close up.

Close up of the feet: