Fort Ticonderoga is a historical landmark. To create a more inclusive experience for all and attract those who need extra care, the site seeks to enhance its accessibility.
As a team of three, we proposed to create an accessibility and sensory guide for the site. Through a series of research and design, we delivered the guide in the form of an ADA (Americans with Disabilities) compliant PDF, which is ready for print and web (mobile) display.
Fort Ticonderoga is a fort built in the 18th century that is now being preserved as a historic site spanning over 2000 acres of land. It contains 5 major nodes:
The pictures(credit: Fort Ticonderoga official website) above show the scenery of the first 4 nodes correspondingly. These 4 nodes are also the focus of this project. Mount Defiance is not included because it's separated from the rest.
As shown in the picture, most of Fort Ticonderoga are outdoor areas. Different nodes have different amenities, road terrains, and sensory conditions. For example, some roads are bumpier than others. The previous sitemap only contains information on directions, special tours and programs, and some amenities. But it has no accessibility details of each place. For visitors, especially those who need extra care, to have a due expectation of their visit, more accessibility information should be provided.
The accessible interpretation problem of Fort Ticonderoga is the lack of accessibility and sensory information.
During the research phase, we conducted literature reviews to decide on the best method for accessibility enhancement in Fort Ticonderoga. Next, we defined our target users and goals/method through ecosystem mapping. Based on our insight, we proposed to create accessibility and sensory guides, and it was approved by our mentor from Fort Ticonderoga. From there, we analyzed local guide reviews to understand users pain point. We also conducted a comparative study to learn the best practices for accessibility and sensory guide design.
We first conducted 3 literature review to have a better understanding of accessibility in museums and historic site. Our aim was to gather insights from existing solutions.
Mobility and accessibility in historic cities
Findings: When built, these historical sites were not designed for the tourism conditions and needs of contemporary. The aim is to achieve the interaction between historic preservation of the environment with the dynamic socio-economic of the local.
Welcoming All Visitors: Museums, Accessibility, and Visitors with Disabilities
Findings: In order to create a more accessible museum experience for all, universal design should be incorporated into the design of museum exhibits. Considering various levels of ability (both physical and mental), different programs and techniques should be designed. Learning visitors (knowing contexts of individuals), connecting with local communities and staff training are necessary for museum accessibility design.
Making the Museum Autism Friendly – Best Practice from Around the World
Findings: Current practices and accommodations include:
Among the existing best practices, we narrowed our solution choices to downloadable visual designs such as sensory maps, sensory guides, and communication books. Because these practices require least management accommodations, and therefore are most feasible.
To further narrow down our solution choices, we move on to identifying target users. We created an ecosystem mapping which listed all the potential visitors of Fort Ticonderoga. This map helped us identify population affected by this problem and how we could address it. 6 groups of people included in the map are:
For each group, we analyze what information would be most helpful.
As a site consists of mostly outdoor uncontrolled scenery, we figured that sensory information is of vital importance, together with the facility information. Also, considering that Fort Ticonderoga is a historical site, the conflict between preservation and modern accessibility update exists. Access information is another important reference when visitors make visiting plans.
Therefore, we decided to set our target users as people with visual/auditory impairment, sensory processing disorder, and motor impairment. We also aim at guardians of kids with disabilities.
Our goal is to create accessibility & sensory guide for our users.
The accessibility and sensory guide consists of tables that straightforwardly showcase the accessibility and sensory level of a place through the use of icons and a few explanation texts. For reference, we used the sensory guide template created by former NYU students. This template has 6 columns. Each are the photos of the exhibition, description of the area, sensory information including flash light, sound, sight and smell. Staffs from Fort Ticonderoga can also easily edit the guide by adding and deleting icons/texts.
Our mentor from Fort Ticonderoga, agreed on the proposal.
Now we have decided on our target users and the goal, but we were still not sure about what our users need. Considering that visitors of Fort Ticonderoga come from all over the country, it's difficult to arrange interviews with them and the potential interview results may not be representational enough. Therefore, we chose to analyze the local guide reviews on TripAdvisor and Google Maps to see their concerns with the accessibility and sensory level of the site. Keywords used to locate related comments are:
Accessibility: "accessible", "access", "parking", "restroom", "wheelchair", "bike", "walk", "ground", "road", "path", "move", "signal", "muddy","difficult", "hard", "bumpy"
Sensory: "loud", "noise", "quiet", "smell" ,"temperature", "warm", "hot", "cold", "bright", "dark", "dim"
With these keywords, we were able to find identify several pain points of the visitors:
We also browsed other comments in case some related comments are missed. Here are some other findings:
None of the team members had experience with accessibility guide design, so at the same time, we studied existing accessibility/sensory guides. The two guides we analyzed are the sensory guide from the intrepid museum and the Nickelodeon Universe, as recommended by our faculties.
Intrepid Museum Sensory Guide
Pros:
Cons:
Nickelodeon Universe Sensory Guide
Pros:
Cons:
From all the research above we, we concluded a questionnaire of things useful for the guide creation. Then we conducted several interviews with Miranda, the VP of Collections & Digital Production at Fort Ticonderoga, and Nicholas, Museum Retail & Guest Service Manager to get detailed information. Questions for the first interview include:
Based their answers and the issues we encountered (insufficient info, info selection), we developed more questions and arranged two follow up interviews.
Because Fort Ticonderoga is very large, it's impossible to get into every details. For example, we planned to include pollinator & allergy information in the guide and developed a survey to gather info from staffs in Fort Ticonderoga. But it's too complicated considering the vast number of plant species in the area. Also, we don't want to add to users' cognitive load with excessive information in our guides.
We originally planned to visit the site in person so we can get more details we want, but Fort Ticonderoga is far and it was not open during the project process, and we couldn't find a perfect visiting time during the school semester. So our mentors, who's working on site, took photos for our remote observational study.
During our remote observational study, the most difficult part is to decide whether a place is accessible or not.
Above are some of the pictures taken by our mentors upon our request. We especially paid attention to any bumpy ground or stairs that can be unfriendly to wheelchair users. At first, we were tempted to define the accessibility level for some areas. However, based on the feedback from our faculty mentors, it's sometimes unwise to claim an area is wheelchair accessible because different people perceive "accessible" differently. One area could be accessible for one person, but inaccessible for another. The key is to provide enough information for users to decide themselves. As a result, we refrained from indicating a place as "wheelchair accessible" unless they are accessible parking and restrooms that have been tested.
The findings gained from our research process give insights to our design process.
Based on the insights from our research, we moved on to the design phase. We went through the initial information architecture, style guide, icon design and refined information architecture.
To better structure the information gathered from our secondary and primary research, and to avoid information overload, we started the initial information architecture. Based on our findings, some issues that visitors care about exist cross the entire Fort Ticonderoga.
So we decided to create a general information page to deal with those issues. We then created individual accessibility and sensory table template for specific locations.
The initial accessibility and sensory table shares a lot of resemblance with the Intrepid Museum Sensory Map from our comparative study. In this design, each area has its own row. We moved the highlights/programs/tours from the table to the notes section because our goal with this design is to provide as much important accessibility/sensory information as possible, with less emphasis on the on-going activities. (Visitors could find more activity information on the general map.)
Once we finished filling out the template for different nodes of the Fort Ticonderoga, we moved on to style guide development, to make the guide more aesthetically appealing. We first referenced Fort Ticonderoga's existing branding guide, then we further developed it in the accessibility aspect, which include:
We especially considered how colors are perceived by people with different color vision deficiencies when picking colors. So visitors with these color vision deficiencies could also tell the color differences.
(Scroll down for the final version)
One strategy we use to avoid cognitive load is to use the combination of icons and texts, instead of plain text. For sensory icons, different sensory levels are presented with different shapes and colors. The variation in shapes helps users differentiate if the guide is printed black and white. The usage of color is also intentional.
Green is used to indicate natural temperature because the nature is usually perceived as green.
Red is used to indicate/warn high sensory level because the color red stands out the most.
Blue (main color of Fort Ticonderoga's branding guide) is used for moderate sensory level.
Yellow (variation of Fort Ticonderoga website's secondary color) is used to indicate low sensory level.
There are two exceptions, one is the Temperature Conditions. In convention, people perceive red as hot and blue as cold, so we adjust our design to match it. Here moderate level is yellow and low level is blue.
The other exception is the Lighting Conditions. Here the natural light uses yellow instead of green because in reality there is no green sunlight. Also, the low level icon (dim light) is red, while the moderate/high level is blue. We made this decision because most visitors want to avoid "Dim Light", so red serves as a warning sign.
Another design decision is for the "Bugs & Animals". Previously we have more representative icons. However, based on the feedback of our mentor, such icons (paws) could be misunderstood as "pets not allowed", so we changed them to the tick mark and cross mark. We did not use red and green to avoid implying that the green tick icon could favor the presence of a bug or wild animal.
For icons in the accessibility guides (icons of amenities, road conditions), we utilized the same color palette. We designed the icons with reference to the universal icons for easy understanding.
(Scroll down for the final version)
After the creation of style guide and icons, we revisited our initial table template. For the overall accessibility and sensory notes page, the layout was not changed, we only adjusted the style of it.
For the individual tables, we first also only adjusted the style. With this initial layout, users could compare information of two places on one letter-sized page. But each column is a bit narrow and it looks heavy. The sensory guide and accessibility information are separated.
To reduce the cognitive load, we created Sensory Guide v2, where only one place is displayed on each page. We drew inspiration from the Nickelodeon Universe Sensory Guide from our comparative study. This version has more space and looks lighter.
We then explore the color: we changed the header color from Fort Ticonderoga blue to gray, to reduce visual weight.
After discussion, all three of us voted for the "Sensory Guide v2-2", because it has better visual hierarchy. The enlarged photo area allows users to see it more clearly. The white space and gray header effectively reduce the visual weight. Now, we came to another decision.
Originally, we put information of two places on one page for comparison and thus separated the accessibility and sensory guide of one place. Now since we prefer one place on each page, should we combine the two tables of that place, so visitors can know all the information about this place on one page?
Based our consideration and our mentor's feedback. The answer is "Yes", we are combing the accessibility table and the sensory table in one page.
So we came up with two more variations.
In both v3-1 and v3-2, the accessibility guide and sensory guide are on separate rows with different-colored headers to indicate their difference. v3-2 gets rid of the Wifi/Cell column in the accessibility guide, and it has separators within the "Amenities" column to better organize the information.
The v3-2 is the final version approved by our mentor, we adjusted the header at the top right to "Fort Ticonderoga Accessibility & Sensory Guide - (Number)" for consistency.
We eventually decided to delete the "WiFi/Cell" column in each accessibility table and add it to the Overall Accessibility and Sensory Notes for two reasons:
We also made some final changes to the icon design. For example, we changed the water fountain icon to a simple water drop so it's more universal and easy to understand.
Corresponding to the change in accessibility and sensory guide, we adjusted the style of the Overall Accessibility and Sensory Notes again.
Our final deliverables include:
From this project, I learned:
