Core77 Design Awards

  • All Winners
  • Categories
  • 2015 Jury
  • The Trophy
  • Other Years
    • 2019 Awards
    • 2018 Awards
    • 2017 Awards
    • 2016 Awards
    • 2014 Awards
    • 2013 Awards
    • 2012 Awards
    • 2011 Awards
  • Sign up / Login;
winner burst Strategy & Research Student Runner Up

Wayfinding for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Anushree Jain, Natalie Scoles, Andrea Zuniga, John Lee, JM Downey, Nabila Norwin

IIT Institute of Design/ MSKCC

  • Overview
  • Team Credits
  • Images
  • Details
  • Jury Commentary
2015 Core77 Design Awards

Strategy & Research Winners

2015 Core77 Design Awards

All Categories

  • Y1
  • m1
  • U1
  • H1

Project Overview

The battle through cancer isn't an easy one. Nor for the patients, nor for their family or friends. It is a sensitive state and the last they need at that stage is to struggle finding their way around while getting their treatment at the hospital.


Wayfinding at the hospital currently left patients confused and frustrated. They felt lost or intimidated with information. We assisted Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) in providing a system that would put the needs of patients and families first as well as give clear, concise information through easy to follow directions.


We also felt any solution should apply to diverse environments and grow over time as new hospital environments are built.


We designed a wayfinding experience that made patients feel confident, welcome, and at ease in a way that accommodates MSKCC's complex architectural needs, naming conventions, and brand guidelines.


The design is soon to be prototyped at MSKCC's main hospital and promises to empower the patients to better cope with the biggest fight of their lives, allowing the MSKCC family to provide them with the best care.

Project Team

Anushree Jain

Natalie Scoles

Andrea Zuniga

John Lee

JM Downey

Nabila Norwin


Project Images

Ideation workshop with stakeholders
Prototyping in the hospital
Diorama in making
Diorama_1
Diorama_2
Diorama_3
Diorama_4
Diorama_5
Research & Strategy presentation
Diorama presentation
Team
Design team

Project Details

The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) is a compound of health care facilities spread throughout New York City that aims to provide world class cancer treatment, part of which includes providing the best patient experience possible. Their growth and physical acquisitions over the past 100 years has caused their main campus to be a hodge podge of connected buildings with different architectural styles and unique physical challenges, leading to a disjointed experience for patients, visitors, and staff. Currently, wayfinding at MSKCC is nothing but chaotic: signage from different eras and viewpoints clutter the landscape and lacks a strategic, cohesive approach to this essential, yet often overlooked element of the user experience.


Knowing this, we were given the task to understand the operational needs of the main building and propose a better wayfinding system. The solution needed to be an analog solution, work with the existing infrastructure, coexist with the new brand guidelines, evolve with their growth and changing needs of their environment and be scalable in order to be replicated in their satellite facilities throughout the city.


Throughout the 15 week process, taking a human-centered approach, we used many methods and techniques to gather information, gain insights and get inspiration including: observation and emersion in the space; stakeholder interviews with staff, patients, and caregivers; an ideation workshop; and 2 prototyping trips including in-hospital prototyping , digital prototyping, feedback and intercepts. We created a design strategy along with specific design recommendations to help MSK move forward in implementing a plan for wayfinding throughout its facilities. We also designed a diorama to demonstrate how our design recommendations work as a system throughout a space. As part of the package we presented them with a guide book with guidelines for implementing the design elements with templates, details etc.
From extensive contextual observations of the space and interviews with key stakeholders (facilities, architecture and planning, medical staff) we live prototyped two disparate solutions to solve wayfinding challenges; a neighborhood approach and a line/connector approach. Ultimately we came up with a final hybrid solution that provides the right level of detail at the right time.


By incorporating strong graphical elements with directional cues and easy to digest signage, our final solution sought to give patients and caregivers a little bit of autonomy back to their hospital experience. Battling cancer is challenging enough, finding your doctor shouldn't be.

View More Information

  • x Website
  • ` PDF

Jury Commentary

It wasn't just the patient's perspective that was taken... there was a very thorough end to end process applied to look at the different prototypes and different ideas for how you would support all the different stakeholders to the challenge of moving through.
The prototyping iterations and the physical prototyping was very impressive. It was an enormous amount of work to happen in 13 weeks. The caliber and quality of the dioramas that were produced were really great to see.

Strategy & Research Student Winners

Professional Honorees
  • winner burst Professional Winner

    Society of Grownups

    By IDEO

  • winner burst Professional Runner Up

    Exploring government transactions

    By Thick

  • winner burst Professional Notable

    Intuitive Voting

    By Intuitive Company

  • winner burst Professional Notable

    Living Lab

    By Veryday

Student Honorees
  • winner burst Student Winner

    TiLT: the Playscape Project

    By Marie-Catherine Dube

  • winner burst Student Runner Up

    Bridging the communication gap: A new touchpoint for pediatric asthma education in Emergency Departments

    By PAULA FALCO, Tara Flippin, Sarah Norell, Jaime Rivera

  • winner burst Student Notable

    HugMatch

    By Chloe Koo

  • winner burst Student Notable

    POST MORTEM 3.0

    By OCEANE IZARD and MARION ERARD

All Categories

  • Consumer Product

  • Commercial Equipment

  • Furniture & Lighting

  • Built Environment

  • Visual Communication

  • Packaging

  • Interaction

  • Service Design

  • Transportation

  • Design for Social Impact

  • Design Education Initiative

  • Strategy & Research

  • Speculative Concept

  • Open Design

K

{

Welcome

  • YSign In with Facebook
  • mSign In with Twitter
  • USign In with Linkedin
OR
  • jSign In with Core77 Account
  1. Forgot password?
  • Cancel

Don't have an account? Join Now

K

{

Welcome

Create a Core77 Account

  • YJoin Now with Facebook
  • mJoin Now with Twitter
  • UJoin Now with Linkedin
OR
  • jJoin Now with Email
  • Cancel

Already have an account? Sign In

By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use

K

Reset Password

Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.

  • Cancel
  • © 2021 Core77, Inc. All rights reserved.
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • About
  • )
  • m
  • Y
  • '
  • S
  • © 2021 Core77, Inc. All rights reserved.