Abstract:

The research project has been developed in a multidisciplinary encompassing architecture, cognitive ergonomy and interaction design.
The project was based on the methodologies of the partecipatory design of the years ‘70 and updated them according to an user centered approach.

The experiment – a project of signage applied to the buildings of the University Campus of Milano Bicocca – was designed using methodologies of user test task based and scenario based not applied to a digital environment, but to physical space of the Faculty of Psychology.

A case study was generated in attempt to (re)build the cognitive model and the mental map of the users that approach the place for the first time or for the users that live in this space every day in order to redefine the space flows and the environmental plan of system signs.

Students were directly involved in the experiment: they were distributed in role group - a group of researchers and a group of testers; a group of out-house peoples was used as control.
The students were allowed to grasp the methodological approach in order to learn
theoretical aspects and the metodologies of the construction and of the administration of the experiment. In the final stage working in collaboration the students produced the construction and to the analysis of the results.

Learning in practising really allowed students to confront from the beginning a sequence of relevant aspects of the professional procedure, that will remain otherwise unexplored if the learning will be directed only to the theoretical acquisition of the reasearch methodologies; in addition students were applying at the same time inside the project knowledges and methodologies from different disciplines and cultural contexts.

Keywords:

User centered design, partecipatory design, signage design.