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Penn Medicine

Improving movement and directional navigation in an expansive medical system

Timeline
2015
2019
present
Sector
Healthcare & Science
Service
Wayfinding
Towers
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
Location
Philadelphia, PA

Penn Medicine is one of the oldest hospitals with a rapidly expanding healthcare system that’s dedicated to advancing medical research and providing top-notch quality care. As a wide-ranging health care provider, Penn Medicine needed a wayfinding and signage system that could adapt to multiple locations, allowing visitors to easily move through several hospitals and hundreds of outpatient centers with clarity and ease.

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Understanding the inner logistics
The true science of wayfinding involves discovering intuitive pathways that can guide navigation and movement. At Penn Medicine’s central campus in downtown Philadelphia, our observational period discovered that their collection of connected buildings had various names, which confused visitors, and their existing wayfinding system lacked clear directions to access each discrete building. The campus also had various pavilions that were not always connected to each other, further adding to visitor confusion. Yet we discovered one crucial infrastructural connector that was overlooked: the second floor elevators, which could provide the inner logic to navigating the entire building system.

Our strategy eliminated the notion of buildings and pavilions and focused on this series of second floor elevators that could unify the entire complex. We named it “The Connector” because it served as our wayfinding pathway for key navigational signage.

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key to providing major directions
“The Connector” became our name for the pedestrian pathway between the HUP and PCAM. We use it as the top level of the wayfinding hierarchy; signage then points clearly to elevators along The Connector. Our goal was to immediately move people up from the ground floor, so they could then navigate around the entire Penn Medicine system. We kept the signage design simple and in line with their existing branding (primary red and blue colors) and enlarged the typography so patients, family members, and healthcare staff could easily understand if they were heading in the right direction. The goal was to reduce the overall stress of navigating often highly intense medical situations and improve the overall experience for all. 

In addition to implementing our wayfinding strategy in downtown Philadelphia, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) and the Ruth Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine (PCAM), we developed a sign program that is currently being incorporated in several hospitals and hundreds of outpatient centers. The new program contributes unified, consistent signage across the Penn Medicine system to improve the overall medical experience through wayfinding.

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Project

Improving movement and directional navigation in an expansive medical system

Penn Medicine is one of the oldest hospitals with a rapidly expanding healthcare system that’s dedicated to advancing medical research and providing top-notch quality care. As a wide-ranging health care provider, Penn Medicine needed a wayfinding and signage system that could adapt to multiple locations, allowing visitors to easily move through several hospitals and hundreds of outpatient centers with clarity and ease.

Timeline
2015
2019
present
Sector
Healthcare & Science
Service
Wayfinding
Towers
Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Ruth and Raymond Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine
Location
Philadelphia, PA