What is city navigation? This is a system of signs, pointers, information stands with a map that shows your location, the nearest attractions and possible directions of movement — in general, everything that helps you find your way in the jungle of the metropolis. A good navigation system does not make the pedestrian think, but shows and tells only what is necessary.
Legible London is one of the most developed city navigation systems in the world
Why is this important? Of course, you can always ask a passer-by on the street how to get to the library. But there is a chance to come across a visitor (native Kievans are almost mythical creatures) or a person suffering from topographical cretinism. On the other hand, in the age of new technologies, it is not necessary to bother with strangers: a smartphone with 4G connection will save misanthropes and introverts from such necessity and in most cases will even take them where they need to go.
But neither gadgets nor passers-by will replace the navigation system. City navigation is something much bigger. This is part of the city's brand. What makes it understandable, readable, and therefore not scary, welcoming. And it even favors economic life. "What does the economy have to do with it?" - you ask. Moreover, when people understand the city better, they will more easily find and buy a ticket to a museum or theater, will not be afraid to take the subway or tram, and will also be more willing to spend money in shops or restaurants.
A little bit of history
The concept of "legibility" of the urban space was first proposed by the American urbanist Kevin Lynch in his book "The Image of the City" (1960). He also introduced the term Wayfinding (literally, "finding a path"), which is exactly how urban navigation is called in English. The specialist studied the human perception of information in the urban environment and determined that people instinctively identify five key forms: paths (roads), borders (obstacles, barriers), nodes (intersections), districts (territories with a certain character) and landmarks (sights).
The Bristol navigation system appeared even earlier than the London one
For example, the Thames is an important boundary in the perception of Londoners: they orient themselves in the city relative to the river. Therefore, when the Thames was once removed from the popular metro map, even the then mayor Boris Johnson was puzzled and wrote an indignant tweet demanding that everything be returned to the way it was (and they did).
Although the most famous urban navigation system is considered to be London, it had a predecessor in another settlement of Great Britain. In the mid-1990s, Bristol experienced a period of rapid development. But it was difficult to navigate in the city, and guests could miss many sights, interesting shops and cafes. In 1996, the mayor's office decided to launch the Legible City general navigation system project, which would help Bristol become a leading cultural and commercial destination.
As part of the project, new signs and information panels with city plans were installed in Bristol, which had a common user-friendly design. The main advantage of the new navigation system was a convenient map, which was oriented not traditionally, to the north, but relative to the user (that is, the top of the plan depicted what was in front of the pedestrian's eyes).
The Walk NYC pedestrian navigation system for New York appeared in 2013. Before that, there were many multi-colored signs in the "Big Apple" that, although they were of high quality, did not help residents and guests of the city to navigate
The Legible City project was initiated by Bristol-based designer Mike Rawlinson. Subsequently, he founded his own company, City ID, which is engaged in spreading this practice around the world (the company designed a navigation system for New York and Moscow).
Bristol's experience inspired the London authorities to launch the Legible London project — perhaps the largest urban navigation system in the world.
Cities around the world are implementing pedestrian navigation projects
A study conducted in 2005 showed that in the center of London alone there are 32 different navigation systems installed by different self-governing bodies. Meanwhile, Greater London consists of 32 administrative units (boroughs) and the ceremonial county of the City of London (directly the historical center). Due to the fact that the existing systems were not similar to each other, pedestrians got lost and confused. The researchers came to the conclusion that this negatively affects the tourist potential of the city and business development. In addition, it turned out that, although the distance between many stations of the London underground was faster to overcome on foot than by subway, many guests of the city did not know about this. And this served as the reason for the congestion of the London "tube".
The inhabitants of Bath are very sensitive to the appearance of the city, and perceive any innovations on the streets almost as an act of vandalism. The navigation system in Bata is modern, but not aggressive. Its main element is a bronze monolith with a round map. The choice of the designers' palette was inspired by the city's Palladian architecture
To solve these problems and make the city more convenient, the authors of the study proposed to develop a unified navigation system for the entire city. Its prototype appeared in the West End already in 2007. Pilot versions of London Legible were implemented in several districts by the end of 2009.
One of the most important components of the navigation system is the map. The developers of Legible London, following the example of Bristol, also decided to abandon the map oriented to the north. During system testing, they found out that users prefer the orientation of the heads-up map: when the top of the map is what is in front of the user, the right is what is to the right of him, and so on.
In addition, testing showed that it is more convenient for people to use maps on which detailed facades are presented: it is easier to extrapolate a two-dimensional image to a three-dimensional world.
In 2014, the authorities of Sydney began to implement a city navigation system. As part of the project, tactile signs with the name of the street in Braille were installed on the streets of the city
Now Legible London is one of the most developed urban navigation systems in the world with 1 signs, printed maps for pedestrians, smartphone applications. The system also covers the London Underground, public transport stops, bicycle routes. All signs and pylons in the Legible London system have a bright yellow stripe on top, which makes them easy to identify and see from afar.
What about us?
In Kyiv, the history of the navigation system is just beginning. More precisely, there was already a system of information pointers in the city. And it still is. By Euro-2012, the capital, like other cities that hosted football matches, acquired new signs and pylons. However, they were made haphazardly, and therefore could not become faithful assistants for tourists and residents of Kyiv.
Now we can talk about the emergence of a well-thought-out system. The "Agents of Change" team has developed a new concept for pedestrian navigation in Kyiv, which has only recently begun to take shape. As part of a joint project with the Department of Tourism and Promotion of the Kyiv City State Administration, 33 pylons were made for Podol and Upper Town.
Visually, the pylons resemble the "monoliths" of Legible London - the same recognizable yellow strip at the top. The pylons contain pointers to the nearest attractions, a map of the surroundings and interesting information in Ukrainian and English. The authors of the concept refused to officially name museums and other established ones, reducing them to information-rich words.
The "Agents of Change" team has developed a pedestrian navigation concept for Kyiv
The maps on the pylons, following the example of the best examples of navigation systems, are turned in the direction of the pedestrian's movement, which minimizes the number of orientation errors. It was the map that was the most difficult part of the navigation design.
"First of all, our pylons have the map turned in the direction of movement. It turns out, it is necessary to make 66 maps, on both sides of the pylon, - designer, curator of the direction of navigation in "Agents of Change" Alexander Kolodko explains to PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA. - Secondly, in order to work with the scale of the city, the map should not be drawn manually, but collected in a GIS system, and for this, data is needed. The city does not have uniform data, so it had to be collected from everywhere and added manually. Thirdly, they came up with a system of evaluation and selection of objects for those sent to the upper part, because everything cannot be physically accommodated.
Visually, the information stands are similar to the "monoliths" of Legible London
The development of the general concept with testing took the designers three months. The same amount was needed to create the mock-ups of the first batch of pylons.
As reported by PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA in the Kyiv city tourist information center, the production and installation of this batch of pylons cost the city UAH 1,15 million (the contract was concluded based on the results of the tender).
Of course, three dozen new pylons for a city that receives about 5 million tourists per hour is practically nothing. In addition, pedestrian navigation is only part of the overall system. In order to make the city truly readable, information assistants are needed in parks and squares, subways and public transport stops, as well as unified address indicators (by the way, such developments are already available at "Agents of Change").
Maps are turned in the direction of pedestrian movement, which simplifies orientation
"Navigation in the tourist center is, of course, a step forward. However, it is important that we move from a pilot project to a system. It is necessary for the city to have a full-fledged navigation system that would affect transport hubs and subway transfer stations. When a person gets to a transport interchange, he must be able to orient himself to where he will stop and where he will go next. This is a key task for today," urbanist Hryhory Melnychuk notes in a comment to PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA.
New Kyiv pylons contain pointers to attractions, a map of the neighborhood and additional information in Ukrainian and English
At the beginning of January 2019, the KSGA approved an order according to which 223 carriers of tourist information should be installed in the capital — 178 pylons and 45 direction indicators in all ten districts.
"We started to install the first new navigation pylons in the city center together with the "Agents of Change" back in the autumn of last year, and now we will continue the creation of a city tourist navigation system to orientate guests and Kyivans themselves, popularize destination objects, increase the number of visited cultural institutions, etc. , — Anton Taranenko, the head of the Department of Tourism and Promotions, comments on further city plans.
So far, the municipal authorities have estimated the financial needs for updating navigation for the current year — they amount to UAH 5 million.
