Office Wayfinding
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The Coles Head Office in Tooronga, Melbourne, is 40,000m2, on 6 levels. It has been going through an extensive makeover from a rabbit warren (affectionately named Starship Enterprise because of its size and shiny exterior) to open plan offices. The main reason for the change was to encourage more and better communication between the employees. Where individuals would pick up the phone to talk to a colleague or invite them to a ‘formal’ meeting, Coles saw benefits in creating an environment that encourages staff to ‘just walk over’ to someone’s desk and have more informal and impromptu meetings. |
Melbourne architects Woods Bagot did a great job opening up the building, but Coles found that staff still did not get off their chairs enough! ID/Lab was asked to develop a navigation and placemaking strategy to ‘improve communication’ and ‘get staff to utilise it to its fullest potential—actively & easily engaging throughout the building’.
An email survey and a number of workshops discovered that an astounding percentage of staff did not understand the layout of the building. They were hesitant to go outside their own module, because it almost certainly meant they would be lost at some stage. |
To battle this, ID/Lab developed a signage system that focuses on getting people to the correct module. Every sign shows the floor plan layout, with each module, so that users learns the layout through constant exposure. For the same reason, the modules themselves are clearly identified through large graphics. Combined with a change in how desk ‘addresses’ are communicated, the system addresses the previous inconsistencies and provides a clearly comprehensible set of navigation tools. |
