Austin Community College District Enhances Campus Navigation with ArcGIS Indoors Viewer
A Digital Solution for a Human Problem
Navigating the sprawling Austin Community College (ACC) District, with its 11 campuses, 76 buildings, and nearly 4.5 million square feet of interior space, has always been a challenge. Every semester, volunteers are stationed to assist students in finding their way, yet many still struggle to locate the right room, especially on larger campuses. Until now, there was no way for students to look up locations ahead of time, leading to frustration, stress, and often arriving late to their first classes.
I’m Holly Wiese, the GIS Coordinator for ACC Facilities Information Systems (FIS) in Austin, Texas. In this post, I’ll take you through our journey with Indoor GIS and highlight how our FIS team developed and deployed ACC’s first district-wide Digital Wayfinding Map using ESRI’s ArcGIS Indoors Viewer.
Project Timeline
Our journey began in 2021, when ACC started experimenting with integrating CAD floor plans into GIS. Initially, we used a trial version of ArcGIS Indoors and then transitioned to a basic ArcGIS Pro Indoors license. Our first success was a 360 photo viewer for internal use, which allowed ACC employees to select any space, view the floor plan, see a 360-degree image, and take measurements—all without leaving their desks.
By January 2024, we had demonstrated the value of Indoor GIS, and with a new mandate from our Chancellor to remove barriers for students, we secured the necessary support and funding to develop a public wayfinding solution. Our goal was ambitious: deploy a fully operational system across all 11 campuses by the Fall 2024 semester—giving us just six months to get it done.
In January, we upgraded our ArcGIS Indoors license from the ArcGIS Pro Extension to the Viewer License and focused on refining our CAD and GIS data. Given ACC’s 50-year history, inconsistencies in CAD layers and room names across campuses were expected. We meticulously reviewed all 6,569 rooms in the district, renaming them if necessary, and designating each as either public or private, ensuring that only the appropriate information was visible on the map.
The next challenge was how to symbolize and present the searchable data in the viewer. Should it be categorized by campus, district-wide, or both? We needed a structure that would be intuitive for users, ensuring they could easily find what they were looking for. We also realized we needed a point layer showing public entry doors, welcome centers, and other high-traffic areas.
Testing
In April 2024, we rolled out a prototype of the viewer to 150 testers, including both ACC students and employees. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with excitement about the project tempered by useful suggestions for improvement. While some users found the system intuitive, others requested detailed instructions. They also wanted searchable data by campus and parking lots and other outdoor spaces labeled.
Deployment
Responding to this feedback, we spent the summer refining the viewer and preparing for deployment. By August 2024, just weeks before the semester began, we had installed 46 kiosks and nine large touchscreen TVs across all ACC campuses– ensuring at least one at every location. All the iPads and touchscreens were existing college assets that we repurposed to save the college money and reduce waste.
To further support students, we provided 80 iPads for volunteers to borrow on Welcome Day and trained them on using the map. Printed instructions were placed around campus, and the wayfinding map was added to the ACC website and campus brochures.
On the first day of the semester, our new wayfinding map was accessed nearly 4,000 times, a testament to its immediate impact.
The Solution
ACC’s new Digital Wayfinding Map revolutionizes how visitors and students navigate our campuses. With an easy-to-use interface, users can search for specific room numbers or names, explore district resources, and browse through floor plans at any campus within the ACC district. This tool allows anyone planning a visit to ACC to explore parking options and find their destination before stepping on campus.
We have plans to improve and expand the Wayfinding map with routing and IPS. But even now, by bringing our floor plans into GIS and leveraging ESRI’s ArcGIS Indoors Viewer, ACC has transformed campus navigation, making it easier than ever for students, staff, and visitors to find their way around, and improving the overall campus experience.
The Team
Our team, led by Deborah Massaro, consists of two GIS professionals, five GIS interns, and three CAD interns—all alumni of Austin Community College’s GIS or CAD programs, and who have firsthand experience with the challenges of wayfinding at ACC.
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I welcome your comments below or reach me at holly.wiese@austincc.edu.