Owen Woertink

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Design and Urban Inquiry Studio

→ How do we cross streets


Observational Study Graphic Design


Owen Woertink -  Petra Mihalko - Jackson Vontz

For this particular project my team and I conducted a series of observational studies to better understand the behaviors of street crossers at a particular intersection on the Central Campus of the University of Michigan. Our final deliverable resembled a printed zine-like publication, detailing findings, describing methodologies and visualizing archetypes.

Research

What interactions are conducted as humans use cross walks? 
Are there identifiable behavioral patterns throughout the individuals?

Championing these questions, we sought to understand the populated intersection that exists below the Central Campus Transit Center. The street is a division to lower portion of Campus, increasing pedestrian traffic from surrounding University buildings, a perfect vantage point to observe street crossers.


bird’s eye view of the CCTC.
Capturing peak transit time, we captured a typical day passing period. Photos at street level gave minimal insights, but a “birds-eye” video allowed for the observation of overarching behavioral patterns. 

Once this “birds-eye” video was complete, videos were taken back on the ground level facing the intersection, for observing eye contact, hand signals and body language.


it is hard to see how someone walks in a static photo.

Archetypes


Based on our video evidence we were able to assign five crosser archetypes. The following graphs are our observational conclusions and how we’d rank them based the scales of attentiveness, reactiveness, patience and pathing.