Sign Prototyping at Seattle Children’s

After working on the Seattle Children’s Hospital project for over a year, we’ve finally had a chance to see some of our signs in the environment.

We worked with Image Mill, a local fabricator, to produce temporary signs to test for legibility, color, consistency, size, cap height, and clarity. The signs were placed in a low-traffic area of the hospital for a single test day.  This allowed the design team to see how the signs looked at full size in the environment and provided doctors and patient-families an opportunity to experience the wayfinding paths and offer feedback.

This process of testing, feedback, and streamlining is part of Continuous Performance Improvement, an efficiency strategy that Children’s employs. CPI is a theory of customer-focused and efficiency-minded principals—inspired by the Toyota Way—geared toward eliminating waste and increasing value to customers through continuous small improvements.

“Children’s CPI culture means that the they are fully engaged in the design process,” says Mark Sanders, project director. “Hospital leaders see a strong wayfinding program as a significant benefit to families, hospital staff, and the bottom line.”

The overall response within the hospital was extremely positive, says Project Manager Cynthia Hall. “The signs were really well received,” she says. “We learned a lot about how the signs function in the environment and how the users interact with them, all of which will be helpful as we further develop designs and move into fabrication.”

As we work to refine the signage package for both the Building Hope expansion and the campus master plan, we’re also partnering with a team of illustrators, Oakland, CA-based Lab Partners, to create artwork that will help identify each zone of the hospital and reinforce the wayfinding program. The artwork they’ve created thus far is a wonderful combination of nature and nurturing elements that reflect Children’s Pacific Northwest identity.