Silver Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design · 2022
Totetsu Training Institute Wayfinding System
by Takuya Wakizaki - Motive Inc.
- A' Design Award 2022 Silver Winner in Interface, Interaction and User Experience Design
- Awarded April 15, 2022
- CLIENT: Totetsu Kogyo Co., Ltd.
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 37,563
- Verification code 4787BB3100 · Verify this award
About Totetsu Training Institute Wayfinding System
The client, founded at the request of the former Ministry of Railways to maintain and reinforce Japan’s rail system, is a general construction company with far-reaching expertise in the field of rail-related construction. The designer Takuya Wakizaki, the founder of MOTIVE Inc., created a wayfinding system for the institute, which the client built to develop human resources. For the design motif, the designer used rail lines-the core identity of the client. Through the design, the designer strove to create a space that would help trainees feel a sense of pride in their work.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Due to the characteristics of the space, some of the rooms in the facility are in blind areas. The rail-line design marks flow lines to those rooms, offering affordances for spatial movement. In addition, the design team used rail scrap for the facility’s name sign and portions of the stairs to capture the company's personality with creative aesthetic accents.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Facility’s name sign - H174 x W2690
Rail line width - 60mm - Tags
- Wayfinding, Signage, Orientation Design, Environmental Design, Graphic
- Production Technology
- Facility’s name sign - Used rail scrap
Rail line-1 - Steel
Rail line-2 - PVC flooring
Typography - Floor marking film - Design Challenge
- Due to the characteristics of the space, some of the rooms in the facility are in blind areas. The rail-line design marks flow lines to those rooms, offering affordances for spatial movement. In other words, the rail-line design becomes a flow line. This line had to run through the building uninterrupted, and safety had to be taken to prevent users from stumbling. Since the rail lines were constructed by connecting the divided parts, severe dimensional accuracy is required. The rail lines' curves, intersections, branches, etc., were very difficult construction.
- Project Duration
- The project started in June 2019.
The project finished in December 2021.
Located in Ibaraki, JAPAN. - Operation Flow
- Rooms in blind areas or rooms that need to be accessed through narrow corridors are less likely to be recognized by users. With the rail-line design, users can see a destination in blind areas or beyond narrow corridors and change the inactive space into an active one.
- Research
- You can find animals' whereabouts, such as foxes, by following the footprints left on the snow-covered ground.
Many people will have had the experience of walking across the pedestrian crossing only on the white line as a child.
If multiple shapes are drawn on the ground, Hopscotch will start. These unknowingly acquired behavioural habits, which are difficult to prove chemically, can be a hint for designing a wayfinding system. The marks on the floor are great for informing, inducing, and controlling behaviour. - Inspiration
- Totetsu Kogyo Co., Ltd., founded at the request of the former Ministry of Railways to maintain and reinforce Japan’s rail system, is a general construction company with far-reaching expertise in the field of rail-related construction. For the design motif, the design team used rail lines-the core identity of Totetsu Kogyo, which continues to thrive in the rail sector.
- Image Credits
- All Images: Photographer Takeshi Shinto, 2021
- Patents
- Not applicable
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Grand Interview about Totetsu Training Institute Wayfinding System
I believe it's a fundamental principle that wayfinding design should smoothly guide users to their destination, and this should never be forgotten.I would also like to add that if a space can function without signage, that's even better.In fact, I am a wayfinding designer, but there are no toilet pictograms in my house. That's because even without pictograms, everyone in my family knows where the toilet is since it's our home.This has been a long introduction, but based on this fundamental principle, as a wayfinding designer, I look for weaknesses in the space to ensure users can move comfortably within it.This makes it clear which junctions should display arrows.Next, when displaying arrows, I consider whether there's a method specific to that building.The idea for the rails in this work, as mentioned above, was derived from a very simple process: understanding what the space demands from wayfinding design and how to meet those needs.
The client for this training centre, Totetsu Kogyo, is a general construction company specialising in railway construction. And, they handle everything from laying railway tracks to constructing general buildings. Therefore, we proposed combining a retaining wall and rails to concisely represent the client's business activities.While many companies perform railway construction and related businesses, there were surprisingly no examples of this kind of representation, which worked to my advantage.
Design and everyday life are inextricably linked. And I believe that users don't read and act on information as carefully as we designers expect them to. I am exploring wayfinding design that uses intuitive methods embedded in everyday life, so that users don't have to carefully read information.
Blind spots are typically spaces that "cannot be perceived," but in this work, I believe I made them "perceivable."
There was a gap between the original vision and the reality of the construction.While it's difficult to explain in detail, we made painstaking adjustments, consulting with the construction company about the limitations of the construction process and adapting accordingly while still preserving the original vision.
I have young daughters, and when we go for walks together, we make surprisingly diverse discoveries.When crossing a pedestrian crossing, they try to jump over the white stripes, and if there's a small curb, they climb on it and enjoy walking along it like a tightrope walker.I think this relates to the concept of affordance; certain stimuli have the property of eliciting certain behaviours.I strive to incorporate the concept of affordance into wayfinding design, and I believe I have demonstrated it in this work.
This applies not only to this particular work, but I believe that balancing practicality and beauty is a theme that is always required in design.Therefore, I didn't make any special efforts in this work.
I don't know the answer to that.However, I want to continue exploring wayfinding design not just in the design of the sign plate itself, but also in the entire space and the overall user experience.
Receiving recognition at a global design award has eliminated any doubts I had about the path I've taken and will take in the future, and has given me confidence.
I would like to reiterate the principle that design is not for the designer, but for the user.And I believe that conveying information concisely is more important than providing detailed information.