News
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 22, 2004
by Geri Koeppel
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Designer leads the way in wayfinding
A national program is
trying to make it easier for everyone to navigate health care
facilities by creating a universal set of symbols.
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JRC Design, a small Phoenix firm, is leading the way.
Think of the "man" and "woman" icons on restroom doors, only these new
symbols would represent words like "waiting room" or "pediatrics." The
symbols will likely become the standard for health care signs
everywhere.
"It's been exciting to be a part of something that has
nationwide and international implications," senior designer Jim Bolek
said. "Once it gets out, it will garner us and the rest of the team a
certain notoriety."
JRC Design and a team it assembled are the only designers in the nation
working on this new set of symbols. Once four phases of testing are
complete and the icons are established, these will enter the public
domain for all environmental graphic designers to use for free when
they're creating signs for hospitals and other health care facilities.
Now, when hospitals or clinics are built, individual designers or teams
create signs specifically for that site. This will give them a
template, including a standards manual. No one will be required to use
the signs, but it's highly likely designers will embrace the standards
and replicate them so they don't have to re-invent the wheel each time
they do work for a health care facility, JRC employees said.
The main goal, though, is that patients everywhere will have a new
"language" for health care sites so they can navigate them more easily,
whether they're in Bangor, Maine, or Bangkok, Thailand. They'll be able
to find the laboratory to get a vital test, for example, or more
quickly locate a dying relative to share his or her last moments.
Anyone who's ever been to a hospital knows it can be confusing,
especially since people are usually there in a high state of emotion.
Imagine trying to get around in one when you can't read the signs.
What JRC Design is doing falls under a larger umbrella effort called
Hablamos Juntos (We Speak Together), which was set up in December 2001
to help health care professionals communicate better with patients. The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a charitable organization dedicated to
improving health and health care for Americans, launched Hablamos
Juntos and funds it.
For this part of the program, Hablamos Juntos wanted a firm to study
whether a set of symbols, rather than written languages, could be used
to help people navigate the labyrinth of hospitals and clinics.
Initially, it was intended for Spanish speakers in the United States,
but now aims to be effective across languages and countries.
Bolek and JRC Design President Jamie Cowgill met with Hablamos Juntos
staff in January 2003 and expanded on the scope. They saw the chance to
develop symbols similar to Department of Transportation signs developed
in the 1970s that are now standard nationwide and in other countries.
"When we talked to them," Hablamos Juntos Director Yolanda Partida
said, "it was clear they understood what we were looking for and they
could envision symbols applying in a broader way than we could imagine."
Hablamos Juntos soon awarded JRC Designs $50,000 to create a report on
existing symbols in health care facilities, which they presented in
April 2003. What they found was a hodgepodge of signs.
"There are some symbols out there in other countries," Cowgill said, "but they're specifically designed for that culture."
In May 2004, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation approved an additional
$370,000 to develop a set of symbols and test them. JRC got $161,300
for their part, from which they paid seven designers each an honorarium
of $12,500 plus expenses - not a grand sum for such an extensive
project.
Because the symbols will be in the public domain, JRC won't be paid
extra when other designers use the symbols. Cowgill said it's not about
the money, but about giving something back. And the project will bring
them a certain amount of glory.
"We're getting national recognition," Cowgill said.
Cowgill and Bolek knew they'd need to create signs that transcended
language and culture, so they assembled a team from around the nation
that has experience in developing signs at health care facilities. JRC
Design has created signs for Chandler Regional Hospital, downtown
Scottsdale, and Verrado and Vistancia planned communities. They are
also developing signs for Phoenix's light-rail project.
The team of designers developed five or six symbols each for 28 words
that are common in health care settings, including pharmacy,
cardiology, oncology, social services and the like. One symbol will
ultimately be chosen for each word.
Some of the 28 words were more difficult than others to represent. In
cardiology, for example, there was a widely recognized image available
for use in all of the options: the heart. Other words were not as
clear-cut.
"The chapel was actually very difficult," Cowgill said, "because we
didn't want to design for Christian faith-based (people). We tried to
take as many elements from as many religions as we could think of."
In October, a team began testing the symbols using real people in real
health care settings. Testers ask volunteers - patients at 10 health
care sites nationwide - which percentage of the population they think
will understand each symbol.
"Ultimately, we're not the ones who will decide what the symbols will look like," Bolek said. "It's the public."
The results are being tabulated now. After each round, the team will
look at the feedback and revise the symbols in order to keep making
them clearer. Three more rounds of testing will follow.
Wendy T. Olmstead of Ivy Tech State College in Lafayette, Ind., is a
consultant directing the testing. She did her master's thesis at
Arizona State University in 1991 on whether existing symbols in
hospitals were understandable to patients and found that only seven out
of 41 were considered meaningful to them.
"Designers can see things in clouds," Olmstead said. "We can lie on our
backs and see animals in clouds. So we look at symbols and see things
that are crisp and clear."
Others may not see the same meaning, she said.
Partida said the symbols are intended to help people attain a higher quality of health care, no matter what language they speak.
"People will see this as a means to coddle somebody who hasn't learned
the language," Bolek said, "and that's not the point. It's a way to
help everybody in a potentially stressful situation."
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