Sign Services - Wayfinding Sign Program

The Wayfinding Sign Program uses room number policy guidelines and a directional sign system to help the campus population and emergency personnel find destinations with ease. It is supported by a renumbering committee and Arizona State University environmental graphic designers. (Environmental Graphic Design is the planning and design of visual communications for interior and exterior spaces.) The committee and designers function as a team to help make Arizona State University safe and easy to use.

Prior to 1987, ASU did not have a room number policy. As a result, many of our campus buildings contain room numbers that do not follow a logical sequence. We now use current room numbering policies and their guidelines to renumber rooms. These improvements will not only help our campus population find destinations with ease, it will also enable emergency personnel to quickly find their destination.

Renumbering Procedures

When renumbering rooms, the members of the renumbering committee carefully consider the impact the process has on building occupants and the ASU community in general. This is done with the use of a protocol developed by the committee members. All proposed renumbering is coordinated with the scheduling of academic rooms to ensure the class scheduling process is not disrupted. Meetings are scheduled with representatives of the units occupying a selected building. These meetings are used to receive input on proposed renumbering, and to coordinate a time to install the new signs. During the renumbering process, discussions are held with departments such as Information Technology, Public Safety, and Academic Facilities to insure that data bases remain current. Building directories will also be modified to accommodate the changes.

Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted by Congress on July 26, 1990. Lawmakers designed the Act to provide comprehensive civil rights to approximately 43 million people with disabilities. This broadbased act affects all businesses and institutions, and applies to all buildings altered or renovated after January 26, 1992. This law is the driving force that has changed the way we design, manufacture, and install signs on the ASU campus. The Americans with Disabilities Act aids in the development, maintenance, and consistency of room numbers, sign design, and sign placement.

Tactile / Braille Sign Placement

Room numbers, restroom signs and stair signs are used to designate permanent spaces on the ASU campus. Signs will be installed in the federally mandated location. This location is in the 18 inch area immediately adjacent to the knob side of the door, 62 inches from the top of the sign to the finished floor, (or in the next most conspicuous location). Consistent sign placement throughout the campus is critical. Wall mounted door signs must be installed so that a person can approach to within 3 inches of the sign without encountering any protruding objects, or without standing within the swing of the door.

Candidate buildings will receive the Tactile / Braille signs along with their installation at the expense of the Wayfinding Sign Program. The signs can be expanded to include names, titles and tackboards. However, this is optional and is a departmental operational expense.

Procedure

The Wayfinding Sign Program is managed by a committee of people who provide special skills needed to manage the room renumbering process. The following are building identification procedures for room renumbering:

• Committee selects campus buildings
• Occupants nominate their own building

Plans are developed by the committee to improve room numbering once a building has been identified. Room renumbering is synchronized with current class semesters and class scheduling publications to ensure that classroom schedules are not disrupted.

A field audit is conducted to compare floor plans and current physical room numbers to confirm the accuracy of the current floor plans on file at Facilities Management. When the audit is complete, the renumbering specialist and field auditor apply the policies and procedures guidelines to develop a building room renumbering "proposal".

Building occupants are appointed, by the appropriate dean(s) or director(s), to represent their specific unit or department throughout the renumbering process. This representative must be a person who has current knowledge of the building and how it is being used by its occupants. (People who typically qualify are operations managers.) Each representative becomes a working member of the committee and is required to attend several Committee meetings and one building walk-through. Working members will be given their signage options, and an understanding of the installation process, and will verify existing sign information for the sign designers during the walk-through. These representatives will be given checklists that will allow them to keep track of their tasks and responsibilities.

Wayfinding Committee meeting agenda:

• Introduce the Committee and mission statement
• Discuss ADA budget responsibilities and limitations
• Explain building representative responsibilities
• Distribute renumbering proposal
• Develop a final draft
• Set a date for change over documents
• Set a date for the physical change over
• Distribute copies of the tri-fold publication

Working member responsibilities:

• Attend Friday committee meetings at 10:30
• Understand the brochure’s functions and purposes
• Help distribute tri-fold publication
• Share information with peers / occupants
• Collect information to update building directories
• Cross reference old / new room number list
• Verify existing sign information during preliminary walk-through
• Determine the placement of "use next door," "utility," and "staff only"
• Determine if emergency signs are current
• Determine if title plates are current
• Notify sign shop of occupant relocation
• Notify committee of any planned remodeling
• Change HRMS and delivery address databases

EQ rooms / closets with specialized communication connections are given special door frame numbers. Information Technology databases use EQ room numbers to reference hundreds of communication connection addresses. To reduce the volume of database modifications, each of these equipment closets are assigned a new number, however, the old number is retained as a connection address and is not indicated through tactile / Braille signs. This old number is referred to as a legacy number.

Draft sets of color coded floor plans are distributed to building representatives. The floor plans will contain the website address. Comments and suggestions, from building occupants, are considered to improve the renumbering proposal. After these considerations have been made, the Sign Shop designers and working members will inspect the building using color coded floor plans. The draft numbers and current sign information will be verified and changed if necessary. An inspection will take place with the committee for information gathering purposes. The ASU CAD specialist receives the inspection results and prepares final version floor plans based on all revisions made to the proposal. The final version plans will be used to guide the renumbering change over.

A tri-fold publication has been created to inform building users about the Wayfinding Sign Program. Building representatives are provided with copies for hand delivery. Public Notices are also posted on all building entrances and restrooms two weeks before the sign installation date. The tri-fold and notices contain installation dates, the building representative’s name and number, and the Wayfinding Sign Program e-mail and World Wide Web address.

The Committee will determine a scope of work and request an estimate from Facilities Management to prepare the building for sign installation. The estimate should include the removal of obstructions, repair, and repainting within the federally mandated sign location. When the estimate is received, the room renumbering Project Manager authorizes the funding for a work order. This authorization occurs four weeks prior to the room renumbering change over date.

The sign shop will report the number of classrooms and sign cost estimate in a given building to academic services for custom sign type funding.

Two sign components are installed per door. One component is a small room number sign which replaces the current number on the door frame. This quick solution allows the room number changeover to occur in one day. The ASU Sign Shop Supervisor personally informs Telephone Services, when door frame numbering is complete and inspected, to insure the Emergency 9-1-1 database remains current. The second component is a grade II tactile / Braille sign installed at the federally mandated location within approximately two weeks. Grade II tactile / Braille signs are also installed to identify stairs and restrooms. Building entrances will be labeled with a prefix and number. The prefix will be name of the cardinal direction that a given entrance faces. The number of the given entrance will represent its location within a clockwise flow of entrances per cardinal direction. Other signs deemed necessary for the facilitation of wayfind will be installed.

Room number modifications are submitted to primary database representatives approximately four weeks prior to the sign installation date. The primary databases are as follows:

A field audit is conducted by the sign shop supervisor to verify completion. The dean(s) or director(s) are then invited to attend a final review. The sign shop supervisor notifies the CAD specialist of the inspection results, and a formal notification of completion is sent to the dean(s)or director(s).

The following is a list of the walk-throughs and their purpose(s):

1. Field Audit - Information gathering for the development of a logical number scheme
2. Working Member / Sign Shop Audit - Verification of existing sign information
3. Committee Walk-through - Inspect obstructions within the Federally Mandated Location
4. Pre Change Over Inspection - Gather information to make estimate
5. Change Over Inspection - Verify accuracy of changeover prior to informing 9-1-1
6. Post Change Over Inspection - Inspect the completed building (Committee and Acting Members