This collaborative project had the purpose of suggesting improvements to the University of Houston Downtown requested by the College President at the time. My team chose a subject creating difficulties for students.
I acted as team leader for the project and editor for each item in the document set. I created most of the proposal, the feasibility report cover art and the floor maps on parameters and limitations set by the college.
VTW Academics Improvement Inc. 1 Main St. Houston, TX 7700 713-569-0835
Date: November 8, 2010
To: University Of Houston –
Downtown Administrator
From: VTW Academic Improvement
Inc.
Subject: Interior Floor Map Pan and Wall
mounts
Proposal Summery
VTW Academics Improvement recommends
the addition of a locator booklet as a supplement to the Student Handbook and
locator wall displays to be added to the
UH – Downtown building stairwell/elevator positions. These
additions to the college publication list and visual displays will further UH –
Downtown in its goal of being a premier city university. This proposal will
explain the problem these items will resolve in detail and a cost estimate for
your consideration.
The Problem
The UH-Downtown main street campus
building was renovated from another building with an altogether different
purpose, and as such, is unlike other education campuses. It is a new concept
in arrangement that the average new student finds difficult to navigate. At present, there are few helps toward
explaining this arrangement to students, which has created problems for all new
enrollees.
These
problems include:
·
New
Students do not know what services are offered by the university and do not
know where to find them.
·
All
elevators do not go to all floors and floor five is blocked from elevator
access. This causes great confusion for
all unfamiliar with the college.
·
In
case of fire or emergency evacuation, there are no visible signs locating emergency
exits or fire escape stairwells
·
Faculty
members are just as unfamiliar with the college’s arrangement and cannot always
accurately direct lost students.
When
Sherry Thornburg, our Communications Coordinator met with Dr. Tommy Thomason in
a preliminary meeting, he took her for a tour of the fourth floor to show her
wall displays used for fire safety displays when she mentioned not having seen
any. They walked the whole floor and
found no such displays. This verified deficiency
not only affects the ability to find one’s way, but also the college’s
compliance to city and state fire safety ordinances.
The Solution
We first propose the solution of
creating a booklet of abstract floor maps published in the form of a supplement
to the Student Handbook. The booklet will offer all students a hand held guide
to finding the location of classrooms, teacher and administrative offices,
advisory sites, tutoring sites and other helpful areas. It will also show areas
of the college that students should avoid (facilities spaces and other
unauthorized areas). The second part of our proposal involves mounted wall
displays on all floors near all the elevators. These will not be as detailed as
the booklet. They will merely picture
the floor plan and the location of fire escape routes to be used in case of
fire or emergency evacuation.
The Cost
Professional design and layout of
the booklet and wall mounts are as follows.
In deciding the print batch size, we used the 2009 enrollment numbers of
10,769 and the faculty staff numbers of 78 as our beginning point. 48 wall mount displays will be needed to
cover all elevator/stairwell positions on all floors. Actual costs may vary.
·
Graphic
Design and Layout $ 1500.00
·
Cost
of booklet printing Per
thousand $6585.00 12k Total $ 84520.00
·
Cost
of wall mounted displays Per piece $36.00 48
Total $ 1728.00
Total
cost $ 86548.00
Conclusion
The proposed solutions will be of
great benefit to the college. The booklet will help all students and new
faculty members gain an understanding of the arrangement and organization of
the college departments by the physical location of classrooms, teacher and
administrative offices, advisory sites, tutoring sites and other helpful areas.
Time will be saved by all in learning to navigate the various sections of the
college more effectively. The wall mounted displays will provide an added
benefit to students, faculty and visitors when posted next to the
elevator/staircase entrances in showing the floor plan with the fire-safety
exits clearly marked as required by state and city ordinances. This last mentioned benefit could be seen as
the most paramount. UH – Downtown is a unique college with a unique
service. These items will improve the
usability of those services, enhancing the experience of attending this premier
city university.
Below are links to the proposal documents.
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