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Trope Collaborative
A human-centered design consultancy that collaborates with clients & users to be more focused, adaptive & competitive.

Solving/
Aurora UDAT

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Opportunity

Much of Aurora was off limits due to heavy traffic, perceptions of lack of safety, and not wanting to drive downtown and was viewed as a series of places, vs. a cohesive city. Aurora was challenging to enter, and very confusing to exit. Collaborating with Elumin and the Aurora Economic Development Commission, the goal was to address existing ad-hoc signage and develop an improved way finding systems and provide concepts that their Department of Streets could produce with existing production capacity.
Geography of Aurora, IL Aurora is a western suburb that covers 32 square miles with major arterial roads driven by a major highway and includes both incorporated and unincorporated areas. This map shows the complexity of wayfinding in all direct

Geography of Aurora, IL
Aurora is a western suburb that covers 32 square miles with major arterial roads driven by a major highway and includes both incorporated and unincorporated areas. This map shows the complexity of wayfinding in all directions.

New Parking Brochure Aurora wanted to maximize usage of its municipal parking facilities, so Trope Collaborative came up with a new parking brochure that highlighted where all municipal lots were located and which were metered, hourly and permit

New Parking Brochure
Aurora wanted to maximize usage of its municipal parking facilities, so Trope Collaborative came up with a new parking brochure that highlighted where all municipal lots were located and which were metered, hourly and permit.

A Simple Signage System Based on the production capabilities of the Aurora Streets and Sanitation Department, Trope Collaborative created four key sign types that all way finding messages could be applied to.

A Simple Signage System
Based on the production capabilities of the Aurora Streets and Sanitation Department, Trope Collaborative created four key sign types that all way finding messages could be applied to.

Tranforming from Where Not To Go, to a Series Of Neighborhoods Based on all the research, Trope Collaborative was able to show the "as is" state of people"s perception of Aurora and then propose a "to be" state based on key neighborhoods and geo

Tranforming from Where Not To Go, to a Series Of Neighborhoods
Based on all the research, Trope Collaborative was able to show the "as is" state of people"s perception of Aurora and then propose a "to be" state based on key neighborhoods and geographical desitinations.

Proposed Signage Based on all the research, I identified where new or replacement signage would be placed and the message for each sign.

Proposed Signage
Based on all the research, I identified where new or replacement signage would be placed and the message for each sign.

Identifying key Aurora assets Based on a workshop and surveys, Trope Collaborative identified key destinations, landmarks and services in 12 categories. These were weighted by how frequent people visited these places which helped define way find

Identifying key Aurora assets
Based on a workshop and surveys, Trope Collaborative identified key destinations, landmarks and services in 12 categories. These were weighted by how frequent people visited these places which helped define way finding messaging.

Engaging the Community With 'Where Is That?' Trope Collaborative identified key destinations, landmarks and services and asked participants to place a dot where they thought the location was. In most instances, people were off thousands of feet,

Engaging the Community With 'Where Is That?'
Trope Collaborative identified key destinations, landmarks and services and asked participants to place a dot where they thought the location was. In most instances, people were off thousands of feet, and even miles. This helped us understand the knowledge of Aurora citizens of their town.

What Affects a Sign? A single sign is affected by a fabric of state, regional and local agencies as well as City of Aurora committees and non-governmental organizations.

What Affects a Sign?
A single sign is affected by a fabric of state, regional and local agencies as well as City of Aurora committees and non-governmental organizations.

Understanding Traffic Flows Since Aurora is so reliant on automobiles through arterial roads, Trope Collaborative received the average daily traffic counts for major arterial roads which would impact where wayfinding signs and messages would be

Understanding Traffic Flows
Since Aurora is so reliant on automobiles through arterial roads, Trope Collaborative received the average daily traffic counts for major arterial roads which would impact where wayfinding signs and messages would be placed.

Methods & Practices

Aurora is the fourth largest city in Illinois and covers 39 square miles of both incorporated and unincorporated areas with major highways, a dozen major arterial roads and many lesser roads. Manhattan by comparison is only 22 square miles. ​ Trope Collaborative engaged with municipal elected officials, traffic engineer, business and citizen groups through a series of focused workshops to test their knowledge of where specific Aurora landmarks were located and their desires for improved wayfinding. Most people sort of knew where things were, but were off by a factor of thousands or feet or miles. Our knowledge of the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) put out by the federal Department of Transportation was important as we audited key signs, locations and frequency. ​ We prioritized locations, business parks, commercial districts, landmarks, public services, medical facilities, museums, recreation and transportation by frequency to determine their importance across stakeholders in order to maximize any signage system. From this data, we prototyped a simple signage system that would be placed at key decision points along key roadway routes to get visitors and residents to specific areas and more importantly - municipal parking lots.

Impact & Outcome

Trope Collaborative presented Phase 1 findings to the Aurora Economic Development Commission and since I had actively engaged with many stakeholders and the findings were backed up by impressions + data, they agreed with the overall recommendations. The proposed basic signage system and the parking brochure were both utilized which had an effect of increasing use of specific destinations and an increase in the use of municipal parking lots.