Adventure Columbus Scioto Mile

Whitney Baxter

Visual Communication Design, 2022

Located in downtown Columbus, OH, the Scioto Mile is an expansive urban park space composed of nine different parks. It runs along the Scioto River, passing by various city attractions and landmarks, and offering a plethora of activities to users. Though it is a treasured space by the city of Columbus and nearby residents, the Scioto Mile is underutilized. Through research, I sought to understand the Columbus identity, place branding, what makes parks successful, and what people want from the Scioto Mile. Using learned insights, I then identified ways to encourage more people to visit the area, mainly through making the parks more navigable for visitors, and showing them what activities were available to them in the park spaces.

The Adventure Columbus Scioto Mile interactive wayfinding system aims to improve the visitor experience at the Scioto Mile. This semester-long process included user research, rebranding, interactive wayfinding, and a mobile app.

Whitney Baxter project image 2 — The name incorporates the Columbus brand, making the brand part of the city identity. This also opens potential for this to become part of a greater Columbus metro park system.

Whitney Baxter project image 3 — The individual segments of the mark could potentially be taken apart and incorporated into signage for each of the nine parks.

Whitney Baxter project image 4 — Use the mobile app to find any and all information about the Scioto Mile. Users can access park locations and information on individual parks, activities, and features.

Whitney Baxter project image 5 — Signage throughout the Scioto Mile indicates various popular activity and amenity locations to make navigation easier for visitors.

Whitney Baxter project image 6 — Use the mobile app in tandem with the signage at the Scioto Mile to immediately access interactive maps and relevant information.

Whitney Baxter project image 7 — Activity signs can be scanned to pull up maps directing users to the specified activity, or pull up information about the specified activity.

View Thesis Documentation 33.68 MB

Whitney Baxter is a Visual Communication Design student at the Ohio State University, with minors in business and architecture. Through her work, she has developed a love for designing for experiences: exploring how digital and physical design can work within the physical world to create valuable experiences for users. She always had a love for storytelling and finding ways to incorporate a degree of narrative into all aspects of her work.

View Whitney's other work at here!

Filters: 2022, Undergraduate Studies, Visual Communication Design, Undergraduate Capstone Project