Finding our way in Gurugram

There are formal routes on the map that tell you how to get to our studio in Gurugram, depending of course where you start from. We found ourselves navigating through the corridors of this techno-city with its vast highways and ubiquitous highrises, which present a concrete jungle of anonymity to the anxious newcomer. Many also end up on a dead-end, as Google too can get flummoxed. Getting somewhere in India used to involve first hand human contact, talking to people to figure out the way. Now, it is Alexa and GPS.

Within these carefully mapped out scenarios on our handy smartphone, in reality we deviate, taking short-cuts through private facilities and pedestrian bylanes. There’s that unexpected loophole, a jump over a fence. These are the best kept secrets of Gurugram, the ones that Google Maps desperately tries to get into, and sometimes succeeds. When we take shortcuts as pedestrians Google Maps actually tracks these pathways - and over time, with many people taking that shortcut - the program turns it into a given route to reach that destination. But, is relying on an app to get us somewhere good enough?

A map for survival
In his book Sapiens, Yuval Noah Harari observes, “....the average forager had wider, deeper and more varied knowledge of her immediate surroundings than most of her modern descendants. Today, most people in industrial societies don’t need to know much about the natural world to survive.” More specifically, he writes, “To survive, they (Sapiens) needed a detailed mental map of their territory.” The key word here is ‘survival’. The 21st century dependency on information tools and Google Maps makes us less able to make keen and minute observations about the world around us. We are simply not sensitively attuned to smells, sounds and other natural directional clues in our environment, to find our way.

What kind of mental imaging do we humans today form of spaces and how do we get around? In India especially, we have a cultural affinity for finding directions through subjective visual cues — the chaiwalla or the big banyan tree — as well as going off the beaten track. Today, our dependency on satellites and technology has created a complex web of reactive networks. As noted, Google Maps tracks the activity of its users and this gets translated into its app. How, as travelers, would we find our way, building paths through unfamiliar surroundings?

Interpreting mental maps
As designers engaged in wayfinding and signage, we were interested in how a traveler perceives and interprets their surroundings. To hone our process of user-centric design, we launched on a mental mapping exercise with a target group of visitors and Lopez Design studio peeps with our Gurugram studio as the destination point. Our approach was based on the methodology developed by Kevin Lynch, articulated extensively in his seminal book The Image of the City (1960). Lynch categorises the main physical parameters by which a person identifies cues to reach their destination, proposing that our image of the city is composed of five basic elements. These are — paths, edges, nodes, districts and landmarks. The study of how we form our mental maps is analysed by deciphering the candidate’s interpretation as they make their journey.

Based on Lynch’s paradigm, we created an interview format that involved tracing people’s journeys to Lopez Design studio. The study addressed both cognitive and objective aspects. The results we got were like a mixed bag of candies: some sweet, some sour, some classic as well as complete surprises. We welcomed all these flavours, excited about the range of responses.

Common to all the interviewees' responses were their description of visual cues taken from the daily life around them, on their route to the studio: dogs barking, construction sites, a peculiar gate, Metro stations, the highway, DLF Tower, familiar billboards and bus stops. Most everyone was able to recall the landmarks they passed; the few yet distinctive signages on their route also left a deep imprint such as Museo Camera, Appu Ghar and Kingdom of Dreams, giving them clarity and reassurance about the direction in which they were headed.

We pause here to emphasize that cognitive readings in the Indian context require more than the traditional objective approach. The diversity of responses is overwhelming, and it becomes imperative to carry out the exercises giving adequate weightage to user context and perception, and then interpret information by understanding individual settings. The ‘image of the city’ evolves in this fashion, a collage of images and maps, each one having an important place in determining the overall picture.

COMMON ELEMENTS DESCRIBED BY OUR RESPONDENTS 
More than half the subjects included these elements in the descriptions of their images on their way: retail sign boards (32nd Avenue, Westside, MG), hotel names (Lemon Tree, Hotel Pallazio), markets (Galleria, Vyapar Kendra), the airport, random destinations from signage boards (Museo Camera). There were also frequent mentions of bridges, ‘glossy buildings’, billboards (Hero Honda Chowk), construction sites and barren land.

HOW NEWCOMERS TO DELHI REGION FELT
One of the residents, who shifted here a few months back was only aware of Galleria, Vyapar Kendra and her Society Gate and isn't comfortable with navigating through other parts of the City. When travelling to Delhi from her new home in Gurgaon, she feels like she is going from a post-apocalyptic world to a civilisation. She feels unsafe and constantly checks Google Maps to ensure she is on the right route. 

Another resident who was also new to the city, but relatively familiar with some areas thinks of Gurugram as a very corporate city. He finds it very hard to move around on foot. Referring to the cartoon Oggy and the Cockroaches, he says he feels lost in the rectangular blocks of Sushant Lok, without any visible signage to show the way.

The loss of human contact
Indians previously relied on casual and spontaneous wayfinding, stopping passers-by on the way to ask for directions to get to their destination. This would involve wrong turns at times, and even retracing their paths, but the human contact was reassuring and brought a sense of community. Today, life in the fast lane has reduced the city-traveler to navigate independently through glossy hi-rises connected by a trail of similar-looking highways and bridges. The old familiarity and comfort is gone and there is a loss of confidence. 

Cities have developed incoherently, sprawling across vast territories without a binding language that can communicate. The piecemeal planning and infrastructure of Gurugram leaves many overwhelmed and many others confused. Most of our respondents confirmed that GPS is the only mode of navigation they rely on, yet almost all of them have ended up on a dead-end because of it. At the same time, losing connectivity to GPS makes them feel disoriented and unsafe. Stuck on the phone to find their destination and not miss a turn, they find they are unable to enjoy the scenery or the journey. Gurugram is a city of cars, not people.

Creating empathetic wayfinding systems
Mental maps help us understand visitor patterns and the logic behind their impression-making, which in turn lets us strategise a wayfinding system which helps people navigate from one place to another, while creating pleasant memories. Wayfinding & Signage Design is a relatively new subject, and needs to be addressed professionally, and more so in our country. A lot more research is needed into understanding the user psyche and how the images of our cities are formed. 

An extensive mapping exercise like the above is one of the many tools in our arsenal. A well-designed city wayfinding system is a solution to our obvious modern problems of navigating through vast disorienting spaces. However, wayfinding & signage is also a powerful yet often-overlooked way for a city to make contact with its visitors and residents. It can help create a unique identity and sense of place with consistent signages, adding to a city’s character while providing guidance and the means to help people feel at ease in their surroundings.

The best solution can only be as good as the problem. Our process always begins with understanding how users take in information about a space, and then complementing that with layers of information that can guide them in the most effortless and seamless manner. As a collaborative team of architects, graphic designers and product designers we collectively aim to contribute in making every space, every habitat a little better everyday, through design.

View our Wayfinding Projects
Bihar Museum
DLF Garden City
WTC Noida

Written by Prabhjot Kaur, Namita Jain and Anshul Kapoor
Illustrations by Saumya Singh
Edited by Sujatha Shankar Kumar

Further reads:

Celebrating Indian culture in brand design