How might we design a parking garage system that, through efficient and pleasant parking experiences due to clear & informative signage, intuitive navigation, and seamless payment & exiting, inspires people to explore Ithaca?

At the genesis of this project, the city of Ithaca brought in more than $3 million annually in parking revenue. However, when factoring in costs like the debt for parking garages, the city was also running a deficit of about $840,000 per year. Confusing signage, a complicated payment process, and unappealing aesthetics discouraged more widespread usage. The city could try to increase revenue in a variety of ways:

When our team was presented with the challenge to help them increase revenue of their parking system, we zeroed in on solution #4–to increase occupancy and awareness of one of the city’s downtown parking garages, the Seneca St. Parking Garage, by improving the user experience for its visitors.

I conducted several site visits with fellow design team members to identify pain points within the garage system. We derived insights through personal immersion, engagement with users, and observation of users.

Site visit conclusions

Based off our research, we settled on 3 focus areas for the project:

Animals, colors, and numbers

We decided that each floor will be differentiated by the use of animal iconography, color, and numbers. The iconography is based on animal species in the local ecosystem. Each color chosen is compliant with ADA design standards. Lastly, upon careful analysis, our team decided that the existing level numbering system of the garage is most suitable for wayfinding. By maintaining the current numbering system, we would avoid confusing long-term users of the garage and we would not add more project costs by changing the elevator button labels.

Murals

Keeping in mind the two main needs previously identified through empathy fieldwork conducted by the user research team (convenient wayfinding and a feeling of safety) we propose the installation of painted murals at the intersection of each level of the garage. These murals are simple, allowing for easy installation by the city with a limited budget, but large and vibrant enough to promote a welcoming feeling to visitors. They also provide a distinction between floors to assist with navigation and wayfinding.

Stairwell

The stairwell designs (Figure C) include animal cutouts that correspond to its level within the garage. These cutouts mounted onto the wall create a sensory experience that would aid memorization when walking through the garage stairwells, especially for small children who could easily access these cutouts at the low placement height. The stairwell will also have a diagonal block of color (corresponding to its location) painted onto the walls to provide navigational assistance.

Informational signage

Our entire team came together to discuss the 27 different types of signs currently in the garage. Every sign was either kept, removed, redesigned, or combined with other signs. Warning signage redesigned according to MUTCD standards by using Highway Gothic Font. We also created small sticker signage to be placed onto payment machines to reduce clutter and clarify the payment process.

Level directories

Level directories would be a new aspect of wayfinding in the garage (Figure D). They are signs placed next to each elevator. The directories help to both remind people to keep their ticket for the payment system and to remind the user where they are in the garage. This reinforcement of knowledge will help the user feel familiar with the garage. In addition, the level directory will provide a detailed illustration of the level’s corresponding animal and a fun fact which helps garage visitors to have an educational and positive experience.

I helped conduct materials research and assessed a variety of materials to use for the animal cutouts that would be placed into the stairwell. These included acrylic, DIBOND, PVC, aluminum, HDPE, corrugated steel, and stainless steel, and wood composites.

When assessing each material we kept these key variables in mind: sustainability, cost, durability, ease of fabrication, ease of maintenance, and safety. We ultimately selected Marine Board HDPE as the material for the animal cutouts.

We also prototyped the mylar painting stencil material at various thicknesses. Our process was to fabricate the stencils in the CNC lab, hand them off to city contractors who would paint with them according to their methods, and then they would provide us feedback.

Our design was implemented in Summer 2023 by the city of Ithaca. Over the course of the project, our budget became increasingly constrained due to the effects of Covid-19 and the financial burden that it imposed on the city budget. As a result, my team had to figure out how to ship the project with just a $6,000 budget (when originally it had been over $12,000). Through prioritization of design features and by doing the paint stencil fabrication labor ourselves, we were able to get it off the ground.

As always, design is iterative. Although it was implemented, it is far from perfect, which is okay. In fact, the parking garage in which it was implemented in will probably be demolished in the next 5 years, as it is almost 50 years old, and a new garage will take its place--but this time with the next iteration of this design system as determined by a future cohort of students.

This was by far one of the most influential and cherished experiences of my undergrad. It taught me how to be more comfortable teaching the design thinking process to others when I led design charrettes and instructed how to derive valuable insights from empathy fieldwork. It taught me vital presentation skills as I communicated team updates to project stakeholders. It taught me the importance of meticulous documentation during design handoff--picture pixel perfection but in the context of an 8-story parking structure...so many measurements to be communicated! Lastly, it taught me to be curious about even seemingly mundane problems.