As a group we discussed the possible floor layouts we could have for our degree show. We considered the flow of the room and how people would move through the space, along with the issues that we could have. One consideration we had to make is what the first things they would see would be when they entered the room. We considered possibilities such as such as having showreels playing near the door, or putting business cards on the nearest desks to the door making sure people see them easily as they walk in. Another area that we considered which could have a large effect on the flow was the VR area. We discussed early on how last years degree show put the VR area near the entrance, which caused issues with people trying to move by causing congestion when it got busy. So, we decided to move the VR areas to the opposite side of the room which allows for guests to move through easier, along with being able to see the second half of the room without the VR area blocking it. By doing this we can showcase everyone’s work on the tables before the VR area, making sure that nobody must go past the VR area and disrupt people using the VR.
This was an early floor plan I made to scale so we could quickly illustrate our ideas and gain a better understanding of the room. We found that it would be best to put a showreel on the tv in the corner, allowing us to the utilise the corner space with a T.V but also being in a place that will likely catch eyes as people walk by. Either as they walk into the room or as they are leaving from the VR end.
After this we found that Gareth had a floor layout of the room on Sketchup. We figured we may as well use this to be more efficient, subsequently allowing us to speed up our process in the layout designs. This plan was more detailed, giving us a better idea of how objects would look in certain places rather than just having a simplistic grey block. The floor plan was then rearranged to how we planned it, allowing us to finalise the layout. After this, Laura then annotated the plan to show were people are displaying their work, along with the equipment we will be using to showcase our work. One other idea we had was removing the whiteboard which blocked the glass looking out into the corridor. We discussed how removing this could allow the room to feel more spacious, along with allowing people to see in the room which may intrigue them by seeing work displayed on the mac screens. One other benefit is more light can enter the room through these windows, providing a better overall atmosphere to the space.
Sam Akester 