Nichols Hall
Wayfinding Project
A complete wayfinding system designed, installed in the building, and exhibited at the Chapman Gallery — Kansas State University.
A building that defeats navigation
Nichols Hall on the campus of Kansas State University presented a wicked wayfinding problem. With four floors, narrow hallways, non-distinctive corridors, no floor markers, and a counter-clockwise room numbering system, hundreds of students, faculty, and visitors got lost every semester.
Secretaries regularly stood outside department offices during the first week of school to answer navigation questions. Students arrived late to class. Some gave up entirely and left. The current practice was expensive, inadequate, and time-consuming.
"Anyone experiencing even momentary disorientation and lack of recognition of their immediate surroundings experiences the uncertainty of being lost."
— Reginald Golledge, 1999Understanding the space
The project began with an extensive visual investigation of Nichols Hall — walking every floor, mapping entry and exit points, documenting the existing (failed) signage, and conducting user tests with students. Three phases of A-B testing refined the system from rough paper prototypes to a final production-ready design.
Design planning wall — floor maps, information architecture diagrams, and wayfinding decision trees
Navigation in Nichols Hall
The designed wayfinding system had to be both installed in Nichols Hall and exhibited at the Chapman Gallery in the Department of Art. The exhibition was designed to educate the audience on wayfinding as a discipline, present the Nichols Hall problem, and demonstrate the solution.
The language of wayfinding
A large-scale typographic mural covered the full length of the exhibition gallery, introducing visitors to the vocabulary of spatial navigation. Key concepts — navigation, routes, landmarks, visual cue, field of view, decision point — were composed with mixed weights and scales to create a dynamic, immersive environment.
Presenting the system
Making the building legible
The exhibition presented coded floor plans for all four levels of Nichols Hall — Basement, First Floor, Second Floor, and Third Floor — alongside the building directory system. The multi-level coding used contrasting tones to distinguish West, Central, and East zones across every floor.
Directional & identification signage
The signage system consisted of directional panels, identification markers, and a building directory — all mounted at a consistent height of 72 inches from the floor for optimal visual accessibility. Panels used a warm stone tone with clear bold typography and Braille, designed to work at speed for moving users.
Precision in execution
Every signage element was developed with full installation specifications — physical dimensions, mounting heights, human scale diagrams, and placement rationale. Directional signs mount at 72 inches, identification signs at 65 inches, ensuring legibility at both walking pace and standing distance.
The project in motion
A documentary film captures the full scope of the project — from research and testing through to the installed wayfinding system and the Chapman Gallery exhibition.
Full research documentation
The complete 98-page process book documents the full research and design process — from the visual investigation and literature review through wayfinding theory, user testing phases, signage specifications, and the exhibition design.
Navigation in Nichols Hall — Kehinde Osho, Kansas State University, 2020