Youngjoo Park

Abstract

A hospital is an institution that provides medical, surgical or psychiatric care and treatment of the sick or the injured. With those specialized purposes, a hospital has a unique environment and hospital users have special needs and a wide range of personal characteristics. People visiting or admitted to a hospital are often anxious. Losing their way or becoming disoriented in a complex hospital facility increases anxiety and stress. Stress levels can adversely affect the results of medical treatment. Poor wayfinding design can elevate stress levels, which can adversely affect medical treatment, and decrease patients' satisfaction with the quality of medical care. This thesis attempts to add new information and considerations to existing wayfinding theory to help designers be more successful in solving wayfinding design problems that still remain in hospital environments. This thesis also provides solutions to spatial problems, and suggests ways to reduce hospital users' stress. The primary audience for this thesis is graphic and environmental designers, and any other professinals working closely with wayfinding designers who will use this thesis as a model for developing wayfinding design for other complex facilities. The secondary audience is hospital users and staff who experience difficulty with finding their way in hospitals.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Hospital buildings--Design and construction; Signs and signboards; Hospital buildings--Environmental engineering; Graphic arts

Publication Date

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Imaging Arts (MFA)

Department, Program, or Center

School of Media Sciences (CIAS)

Advisor

Bruce Meader

Advisor/Committee Member

Charles Lewis

Advisor/Committee Member

Robert Meyers

Comments

Physical copy available from RIT's Wallace Library at RA967 .P37 2004

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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