How humans learn, navigate and use technology

A very exciting new spatial research project is on the horizon. I’ve got connected to an open-minded and research oriented architect at a firm in South San Francisco, who are just about to begin a public library redesigning project in early 2010. After initial talks, we agreed that I will assist in their assessment of the existing and desired spatial layout and research into identifying user (‘patron’ in library language) wayfinding needs. I’m very excited for some of my navigation analysis methods to be applied to this particular real world design project, and I anticipate to gain insightful results from this research.

The literature for library spatial research is surprisingly enormous (ACRL/LLAMA Guide; Crumpton & Crowe, 2008; Saanwald, 2008; WBDG Guide). More specifically to public library designs, I found academic works that explain in great depth how important appropriate spatial cognition and wayfinding planning would be (Beecher, 2004; Jones, 2000; Galan-Diaz, in press).

Interestingly though, previous real world architectural projects involving public library design have seldom mention any systematic attempt to empirically understand how patrons use the space. They are focused on the details of the physical properties (i.e., colour, shape, configuration) and mission statements of the library or the assumed (not actually measured) interest of the patrons.

Although my research has just began, I’m already seeing important research leads and potentially crucial questions:

1. How/why/when do patrons use the space of existing library?
2. What areas (and why) have higher visitation frequencies than others? Why?
3. What are the problematic spatial areas (ie., high need with low visitation)? (And what areas don’t need re-design!)
4. How to install/reinforce new and desired services for patrons?

More to come soon…