Exhibition Floorplan Layout
Exhibition Floorplan Layout was designed and implemented for the design team at the Palais de Beaulieu , Lausanne. The Palais de Beaulieu is famous throughout Europe for exhibitions such as the Comptoir Suisse and Gastronomia International.
Working with and managing a team of programmers Ruth was able to:
- interview the draftsmen at Beaulieu to ask them how they felt about the software they currently used and what they would want to see in an exhibition floorplan software
- shadow draftsmen at Beaulieu as they planned and supervised the construction of exhibitions in and around the Palais
- capture exhibition knowledge to create models that facilitate planning exhibitions, such as calculating the amount of carpet needed for each aisle, billing clients, grouping stands together depending on their size and electricity or water requirements
- investigate and understand the symbols and other representations used in floorplans for use in the graphical-user interface
- partly program the graphical-user interface in OpenGL and Microsoft Visual C++ Studio with the facility to generate AutoCad compatible files as well as linking to the accounts systems at Beaulieu
- test the resulting software on the draftsmen team in one-on-one user interviews in order to evaluate its utility