Image demonstrating What3Words usage in Piccadilly Circus (London), and a view of an escalator in a modern building

Thinking differently

Date: 11 February 2020
Time: 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Alan Baxter Ltd, London, United Kingdom
Past event

This talk provoked the status quo and encouraged new thinking to solve everyday navigation and wayfinding challenges. what3words British tech company has turned how we assign place addresses on its head. The company has developed a simple, human-friendly platform that allocates a three-word address to every 3m x 3m square in the world. Whether it’s helping people find tents at festivals, delivering post to places lacking a well developed address system, or directing emergency services to the right location, what3words can be used by anyone, anywhere in the world. Account Manager Charlie Wilson walked us through the inspiration behind the idea, explained how it works and outlined what3words’ vision to become a global standard for communicating location. By contrast, our second speaker Dr Colette Jeffrey focussed on ‘waylosing’. Colette shared the results of a five-year research project investigating why people get lost, and the influence of sign design, architecture and navigator cognition–theory. The research has culminated in the development of the ‘MAGPIE Matrix. This is a new framework that identifies six reasons for waylosing and maps them against the challenges faced by designers developing wayfinding systems for complex environments.

About our speakers

Charlie Wilson joined what3words some years ago, to look after key partnerships within the automotive and navigation industries. Sectors where the ability to easily communicate a precise location has great benefits for efficiency and customer experience. During his tenure, he has worked with event venues and organisations to improve wayfinding communication. With a geography degree from Durham University and previous experience in the events industry, the interaction of space and place have been a constant theme in Charlie’s work.

Dr Colette Jeffrey, Associate Professor of Wayfinding and Inclusive Design, has been teaching graphic communication at BCU since 2009, and at BIFCA in Wuhan (China) since 2015. She is a Director of the Sign Design Society, a Trustee for the Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) and a member of RIN’s Cognition and Navigation special interest group. Colette spent many years designing signs and wayfinding strategies for more than 20 NHS hospitals, The British Library, The National Library of Wales, Heathrow Airport, Natural History Museum, Wembley Arena, London South Bank University whilst working at Brand Union (now Superunion). During her time at Applied Wayfinding, Colette project managed the development of pedestrian wayfinding systems for  cities including London (Legible London), Leeds (Walk Leeds) and Brighton. Current projects include working with Queen Mary University of London.

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