Finding your way around Austin Community College District (ACC) campuses this fall should be a little easier with new temporary wayfinding signs and banners installed on campuses districtwide. 

Improved wayfinding was one of the topics consistently mentioned during the Chancellor’s First 100 Day Conversations. To address this challenge, the Chancellor prioritized campus wayfinding as an initiative for his Cabinet.

Led by Special Advisor to the Chancellor Mike Midgley and co-chaired by Campus Planning, Construction & Sustainability (CPCS) Associate Vice Chancellor Aziz Hussaini, a Districtwide Wayfinding Steering Committee was formed to address this challenge. The Committee consists of students and a collaborative team of experts from various departments across the College, including the ACC District Police Department, Basic Needs, Human Resources, Instruction, Maintenance & Operations, Office of College Relations & Marketing, and Student Affairs. 

“This College has been talking about wayfinding for a decade. We had consultants who told us it was going to take three years to get this figured out. So, we just got a group of people who cared together and figured out a temporary, short-term solution that looks incredible and is helpful,” says ACC Chancellor Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart. “I’m so proud because I think it’s a physical manifestation of what is also happening to us as a College. We’re getting better. We’re moving beyond just talking about things to doing them.”

Based on guidance provided by the Committee and supported by the Chancellor, the Committee approved the execution of a short-term wayfinding improvement project to be completed during the summer session. To complete this work within the allotted time frame and with careful consideration of costs for a temporary solution, the Facilities Information Systems (FIS) team — made up of all current and former ACC students — and the In-House Construction team took on this initiative. The project resulted in the installation of more than 1,300 temporary wayfinding signs and banners in and around all campuses. 

Hussaini presented the work of the group during the August 8 Virtual Employee Town Hall. He shared that the CPCS signage development and installation team focused on physical and digital wayfinding as well as consistent naming conventions and language across campuses.

To help with physical wayfinding on the exterior of our campuses, more than 600 building- and pole-mounted signs and banners focused on parking lots, building locations, and campus locations were installed. Inside our buildings, more than 700 vinyl signs focused on decision points and popular destinations were installed. 

The FIS team also made updates to the digital wayfinding maps to make them easier to use and more accessible. The digital maps may be used on mobile and desktop devices, as well as the mounted tablets on wayfinding kiosks throughout our campuses. Hundreds of routes were built into the system to help guide walkers or wheelchair users. The maps also feature audible directions for the visually impaired. 

Digital wayfinding maps for all campuses are posted on our website. Click the Public Wayfinding Viewer at https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/ef400de2716a47f59186a70d84b12deb

Additionally, the College is piloting an indoor positioning system at Highland Campus in buildings 1000, 2000, and 4000. The system provides travel-time estimates and turn-by-turn directions that can show the user’s position using a blue dot.

The indoor positioning system, known as the Blue Dot App, can be used by following the directions found here.

To standardize naming conventions, the team is working with faculty to have consistency on course syllabi and aligning that with Blackboard and Colleague.

The naming convention being used is:

Full Campus Name – Campus Abbreviation – Building Number – Room Number

  • Classroom example: Highland Campus – HLC – Building 2000 – 2.1234
  • Office room example: Highland Campus – HLC – Building 2000 – 2.1131.08

Finally, the team color-coded the floor plan maps on handouts to identify departments, frequently visited locations, and student service spaces, with colors consistent to those used in the digital solutions.

The College continues to evaluate long-term wayfinding solutions.