Esplanade Interactive Park Map

Google Maps gets you to the gate, then leaves you there. Inside, the Esplanade is a blank green blob — benches, water, restrooms, and transit all unmarked. Three physical maps exist. All three sit at the footbridges.

How do you help everyone find their way — including people with mobility and cognitive impairments — without handing them a screen?

We stopped asking people where they got lost. We watched where they slowed down. Seven interviews, four kinds of park-goer — their patterns, not our assumptions, decided what the map had to solve. Three themes emerged: digital maps that abandon you at the gate, inconsistent and unmarked wayfinding, and a diverse public that needs equitable access to service info.

A full-size tactile map, plus four rotating blocks — each face a topic: services, navigation, sites, history. A dial, a voice button, 3D texture and Braille make the same map reachable by sight, touch, and sound.

Accessible design isn’t just for people with disabilities. It’s fundamentally good design.

Designing for the edges — contrast, audio, texture, plain-language icons — built something that works for everyone: runners, families, visitors, and people with mobility or cognitive impairments alike. A public space works when no one has to ask where they are. The critique taught me two things I’ll keep: name your artifacts precisely — a service blueprint is not a site map — and quantify what you learn. This is the work I want to do: accessible, civic, service-driven design research.