Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
Enhancing the experience for
over 2 million visitors each year
Wayfinding strategy
Traditional Owner consultation
Wayfinding systems
Signage design
Digital strategy
UI design
Wayfinding strategy
Traditional Owner consultation
Wayfinding systems
Signage design
Digital strategy
UI design
Award winning wayfinding for one of Australia’s most visited destinations.
Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria’s (RBGV) new wayfinding and interpretation system is a fully integrated physical and digital system designed to enhance navigation and discovery for the 2 million+ visitors who stroll through the Gardens’ gates each year. The project was designed using the International Indigenous Design Charter and a First Peoples-led approach, and has been celebrated as a model for future design projects applying the International Indigenous Design Charter.
This layered approach connects 60,000+ years of history to a contemporary, digitally-integrated wayfinding and interpretation system. Combining excellence in design, practical wayfinding, placemaking and digital interpretation, it brings the Gardens experience to life for new and existing visitors.
New approaches to practical challenges
A kit of parts system was designed from scratch to allow for flexibility and longevity. This also included solutions to the complex requirements for temporary signage – incorporating opportunities to relay changing messages and promotions seasonally across the site.
A more legible experience through mapping
The innovative reimagining of the Gardens’ mapping system – with six times the number of mapped panels installed within the Gardens – has greatly improved the legibility and user experience in Melbourne Gardens, as visitors navigate their way through its complex path network.
Merit Award
In the ‘Design for Good’ and ‘Wayfinding’ categories from the Australian Graphic Design Association.
Forging a new path to integrate First Peoples’ knowledge:
The project provides a test-case for collaboration, and forges a new path to build public understanding of local First Peoples language and pre-colonial history in our public spaces. Colours and pattern motifs central to the design were a result of our collaborative team’s consultation with Traditional Owners. Greenshoot Consulting prepared cultural and historical mapping documents for the Melbourne site. As cultural design lead, Jefa Greenaway (Wailwan|Kamilaroi + D’harawal) drew on the cultural mapping insights to map the Gardens to reflect the primacy of Country including high points, cultural gathering spaces, eucalypt woodlands and water (former course of the Birrarung/Yarra River).
The Gardens’ team provided plant species indigenous to Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country from which colour tones were amplified to create a contemporary voice for the Gardens. The structure of the signage was based on core First Nations’ principles of Past, Present and Future – where users are delivered information based on this sequence. Permission was also given to use Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung language alongside colours, and the Bacchus Marsh Wattle Acacia rostriformis inspired a pattern repeated across the signage.
‘The significance of this case study should not be understated as Australia moves towards formal recognition of its Indigenous history, “If we change the way we look at things, then the things we look at need to change”.’
Dr Russell Kennedy, Deakin University and Co-Author of the Indigenous Design Charter
Finalist
In the Premier’s Design Awards, Communication Design category
Integrated use of technology:
The innovative system honours the past while successfully connecting traditional wayfinding and interpretive signage systems with new technology to provide a richer, more digitally connected experience within the Gardens. Traditional signage has been completely reimagined, with heads-up mapped panels replacing fingerboards to give users a deeper understanding of their context.
A system of QR codes then connects users to interactive mapping and rich interpretive information on their mobile devices. The interactive mapping connects to a Google map base with a customised look – to tie in with the physical and printed mapping design across the site. The latest technology enables users to filter by interest area; better understand the stories of plants; and locate themselves to find the fastest route through the complex path network.
Conceptualising & prototyping the digital system
Studio Binocular worked to conceptualise the digital wayfinding system, creating user journeys and flows through wireframes, to test the buildability of the digital interface.
CMS Integration
We collaborated with the developers of the main RBGV website to ensure full integration with their existing CMS, and began a process of digital prototyping and refinement before undertaking the complex build.
One map.
Multiple applications.
Project Partners
Studio Binocular, Aspect Studios, Greenaway Architects, Deakin University
