Above: The Town is asking for feedback on signage needed to better welcome visitors and shoppers downtown. (image from announcement)
Last fall, I shared news that the Town received a $30,000 grant for technical assistance with a downtown Branding & Wayfinding project. This week, the Town issued a Wayfinding survey announcement on its website.
The contracted consultant is seeking feedback by a week from Sunday.
The information is to help determine the kinds of signage needed to downtown destinations and help visitors navigate the area. The project is part of the Town’s effort to prepare for the 2027 Tricentennial.
The very brief survey asks questions about participants’ relationship to downtown (defined as shown in their map) and their use of it. I was initially confused about whether a certain property was inside or outside the borders and had to reference a google map to figure that out. For readers like me, I’m including an edited image to clarify the boundaries.
The anonymous survey introduces:
The Town of Southborough is working with a consultant to create a Wayfinding Signage Plan. The plan will develop a new, cohesive approach for adding or improving wayfinding signs that provide information or directions to Southborough’s important destinations. To date, the team has inventoried current signs and met with stakeholders to discuss various challenges relating to wayfinding today.
Your input also matters. This survey compiles your experience navigating Downtown Southborough and your preferences to inform the study’s recommended sign locations and potential designs.
The survey includes 8 questions and takes about 7 minutes to complete. Thank you for participating!
To take the survey, click here.
I was surprised by how few questions there were. (For instance, the survey doesn’t seek to gauge how familiar survey participants are with navigating that section of town.) On the plus side, (after I studied the map) I found it much quicker than 7 minutes to complete.
When Town officials sought the grant funding for the Wayfinding project last year, they pitched the need to “welcome visitors and residents to the historic Downtown District” in time for the Tricentennial events.
The Town asked for support to:
determine wayfinding signage types that should be included or consolidated, such as direction markers, street signs, gateway monuments, orientation kiosks, and boundary markers encompassing downtown spatial extents.
You can read more about that here. (And, again, you can find the survey here.)
