Commencement Day marks a celebration of accomplishments achieved over several years and the first step toward a new career. Graduating students look forward to sharing their triumphs with family and friends. So colleges spend weeks preparing for one of the year’s busiest events. Ensuring that hundreds or thousands of guests can easily find their way around campus and remain comfortable is no easy feat. Preparation will be key, and interactive maps are an optimal solution to put essential information at your guests’ fingertips. Take a closer look at how using interactive maps for commencement events can help.
How Interactive Campus Maps Can Be Used for Commencement
Interactive campus maps take visual maps to a whole new level by virtually bringing your location to life. You can provide guests with an easily accessible view of all locations on campus. You can even give users access to step-by-step directions to meet their needs in the moment. On Commencement Day, using interactive maps for commencement gives your guests a personalized tour guide to effortlessly handle everything from finding parking and attending the commencement ceremony to finding somewhere to celebrate afterward.
Simplifying Navigation and Wayfinding
Directions are one of the most sought-after solutions for guests navigating their way through the maze of a college campus. Arrows, signs, and static maps can offer little relief for guests rushing to get to the ceremony’s location on time. Interactive maps provide turn-by-turn wayfinding indoors and out. Attendees can simply type in the location they seek. Then, they’ll automatically receive the best route from their current location. When using Concept3D’s interactive mapping solution, you can add event-specific layers to highlight points of importance before, during, and after the event.
Enhancing Accessibility for All Attendees
Commencement Day requires all hands on deck. This means guests, staff, volunteers, and even grads will be navigating uncharted (or dramatically altered) territory. Accessibility-friendly routes from point A to point B will be critical for attendees with disabilities. When you use a map with wayfinding features that include the ability to specify wheelchair-accessible pathways, you can create an equitable experience for all attendees. With the right solution, you can even label accessible and inclusive resources. Those who need them can easily find ADA-compliant entrances, accessible restrooms, or elevators.
Helping With Parking and Transportation Logistics
Even with parking attendants, parking for a graduation ceremony can be an endeavor. An interactive map can guide visitors to the best parking options and include notes with details about each lot. You can highlight accessible parking and routes, as well as wheelchair-accessible paths from the parking lot to specific locations. Interactive maps can also highlight dropoff locations and shuttle locations to streamline your available transportation options.
Assisting With Seating and Venue Information
College graduations often feature multiple events and ceremonies. When ceremonies aren’t on the same day or at the same location, guests are required to learn and remember a lot more navigational information. Using interactive maps for commencement allows you to highlight different ceremony locations and seating information with temporary 3D map overlays. You can provide specific details like the best parking locations, entrances and exits, restrooms, and more. These enhancements help families plan ahead and be prepared for the big day.
Featuring Points of Interest and Services
Accommodating the volume of guests arriving for Commencement Day and the various events that will occur requires changes throughout the campus. Interactive maps are unique in their ability to provide real-time information to users. This includes which areas of campus aren’t being used and special points of interest or services set up for the big day. By using interactive maps for commencement, you can highlight key locations such as:
- Restrooms
- First aid stations
- Concessions
- Photo opportunities
Key Features to Include in an Interactive Commencement Map
When choosing the right interactive map solution for your campus, take time to seek out a product with features to meet all your navigational and wayfinding needs. A high-quality interactive mapping solution will provide a range of benefits to support students, faculty, volunteers, and guests throughout the year and during major events like Commencement Day.
When preparing your map for Commencement Day, be sure to include these essential elements:
Wayfinding and Navigation
Step-by-step directions are invaluable for visitors who are unfamiliar with your campus. When you’re using interactive maps for commencement, a simple search will allow guests, graduates, and staff to locate ceremony venues, parking areas, restrooms, and accessibility entrances. Making sure to include wheelchair-accessible routes to event venues and necessary services will ensure all attendees can easily navigate campus.
Parking and Transportation Details
Commencement Day requires the use of several parking lots, coordination of dropoff points, and temporary rerouting of traffic. Display parking lot locations, shuttle stops, and dropoff zones for a smooth arrival and departure experience. Including notes about parking areas will also help guests decide which lots will best align with their plans.
Seating and Venue Information
Highlight event locations with custom icons and specific information. This will help guests and volunteers easily map navigational routes that eliminate traffic jams and confusion. Interactive maps can be edited to include seating charts and section details to help guests easily find their assigned seats for the ceremony.
Accessibility Features
Using interactive maps for commencement to highlight all locations that make your campus more accessible will simplify navigation for guests with disabilities. Create categories and identify routes that showcase ADA-compliant pathways, ramps, elevators, and designated seating areas to ensure inclusivity for all attendees.
Live Updates and Notifications
Live data integration allows you to provide real-time information to all map users. This feature can be used to provide information about:
- Traffic occupancy rates
- Real-time location of shuttle buses
- Schedule changes
- Weather alerts
- Emergency announcements
Custom Search Functionality
Search features take interactive wayfinding a step further by allowing guests to find specific locations and services with a simple keyword search. Prioritize using interactive maps for commencement to highlight essential services such as faculty check-in points, buildings, and concessions.
Points of Interest
Your interactive map can do so much more than highlight parking lots and a direct route to ceremony venues. Highlighting all points of interest will give guests and volunteers full autonomy regardless of their familiarity with the campus. Be sure your map includes first aid stations, restrooms, food vendors, and photo-op locations to enhance the guest experience.
How to Implement Interactive Campus Maps for Graduation
With the right mapping solution, getting your campus map ready for Commencement Day will be one of the easiest steps on your preparation to-do list. Follow these steps for using interactive maps for commencement to include efficient wayfinding, vital services, and even ceremony details.
- Choosing the Right Platform: Choosing the right campus mapping solution for Commencement Day activities requires careful consideration of all the functions that will enhance campus wayfinding throughout each year. A platform that highlights your campus’s landmarks and buildings and supplies real-time wayfinding solutions will help students, staff, and visitors navigate the campus.
- Integration with Other Digital Tools: Your campus map shouldn’t be an isolated tool. A solution that integrates with mobile apps, campus calendars, websites, essential forms, and virtual tours can enhance the functionality of your interactive campus map in any event or situation.
- Ensuring Mobile Optimization: To be effective, a mapping solution should be accessible across multiple browsers and devices. Choose a solution that adjusts seamlessly to different screen sizes and offers direct integration with your university’s mobile app.
- Testing Before the Event: After devising your Commencement Day map, test all of the features to ensure the map will meet your guests’ needs as expected.
Case Study: Ole Miss
An early adopter of Concept3D solutions, Ole Miss uses Interactive Maps to highlight important commencement locations and information on their interactive campus map, including the following.
- Information booths: No matter how much information is provided online, questions will arise in real time.
- Lineup locations: Allow students to easily find locations online with detailed information (ex., ‘doctoral candidate lineup location’) and the required arrival time.
- Parking: Highlight parking lot locations, ADA-accessible parking lots, and real-time parking lot occupancy to improve convenience.
- Refreshments: Share the locations of refreshment locations, hours of operation, and menu items.
- Restrooms: Easily forgotten until they’re desperately needed, this is one of the most important locations for everyone to easily find.
- Shuttle stops: Ole Miss uses Interactive Maps to assist people with disabilities with pickup and dropoff locations, phone numbers, and other contact information for Commencement Day assistance.
- Inclement weather location: Make this available when needed to communicate an inclement weather location.
- Map timer: Administrators schedule the commencement overlay so it goes live a few days before commencement and ends the day after.
Implement Interactive Maps and Improve Accessibility With Concept3D
Every graduating class works hard to reach the celebration that occurs on Commencement Day. Colleges and universities face an enormous task in converting campuses to accommodate families, friends, and other guests eager to share in students’ success. Interactive maps can simplify the process substantially by providing attendees with all the information they need to confidently navigate the campus.
Interactive Maps from Concept3D provide a full range of features to enhance wayfinding and navigation while providing essential details about locations and services. Want to know more about improving experiences for students, staff, volunteers, and guests on your college campus with Interactive maps? Contact us today to see a demo of the interactive campus map we offer.