As the University’s campuses get bigger and more complex it’s never been more important to review signage, navigation, modes of travel and demand for services.
That’s why we’re working with the University’s Human Factors Research Group, led by Professor Sarah Sharples. You might ask why we want to have a better understanding of how people move about the campuses. In truth there are many reasons. For a start, we can better provide services that support you – the Hopper Service timetable, the provision of cycling facilities, improved signage and mapping to help you navigate our campus. But there is so much more potential. By knowing when people arrive on campus and which entrance they arrive through we can personalise the welcome and direct people more effectively to the place they’re looking for. This is increasingly important in a competitive world where providing an excellent experience (especially for first time visitors) is so important.
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IMPETUS Project team are working with the Estate Office and others in professional services to help us better understand how staff, students and visitors move around and between our campuses. They’re drawing on a whole range of different data sources, everything from our bi-annual travel survey, to anonymised data sets of internet connectivity, timetabling tools and cutting edge global positioning technology being developed here at The University of Nottingham. Each of these data sets is rich in information that helps us better understand what causes people to move around, where they move between and to (and why) and how they travel.
The recent workshop facilitated by Impetus aimed to identify opportunities to the development of new systems to enable better movement around and between the University campuses, increase the wider awareness of potential technologies which are being developed and used by staff and students around and the University and build new partnerships between different academic and professional services groups within the University.
Understanding what causes people to travel (not just the obvious things like start of lectures) is really important to this. Knowing the routes people travel on and between campuses also helps us to enhance service provision and focus our attention there. This might be enhancing the signage, providing catering or investing more in our landscaping schemes. It’s all the start of moving towards a smarter campus where we deliver services based on observed behaviour using data already available to us. Together, this can help make our campus an even better place to be.
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Posted on Tuesday 2nd June 2015