Wayfinding signage is an integral yet unsung part of everyday life. Their pervasiveness has made using signs to get around second nature. How many times have you headed down certain supermarket aisles or towards information kiosks without thinking? This is all down to effective wayfinding signs. Good wayfinding does the thinking so you don&#;t have to, providing cues to guide visitors in a certain direction.
Whether you&#;re embarking on a navigational project for commercial or retail purposes, the five core wayfinding principles remain the same. Adhering to these principles maximises their effectiveness, simultaneously heightening the user experience. Wayfinding can also increase revenue by better informing visitors of which products and services are available and where to find them.
Lavastar consider the principles of wayfinding when creating bespoke signage designs for our clients. This guide will give an overview of the 5 core wayfinding principles and explain why they are important. We&#;ll also provide an insight into how these principles manifest in the design process.
This principle makes every destination of wayfinding instantly recognisable, creating associations which the user connects with their surroundings. Simply put, if all sections of a larger space merge into one then it&#;s incredibly difficult to create structured navigation. Ensuring that your visitor is aware of their position and attaches familiarity and meaning to a certain location is a core wayfinding principle.
At Lavastar, we create graphic navigational signage which is designed to turn each area into a noticeable landmark, thus making it easier to direct users around. Achieving this can be done in subtle ways. No need for outlandish flashing lights and overcomplicated designs to make each area distinct. Colour schemes, tasteful graphics, certain textures and finishes are all effective ways of adhering to this principle of wayfinding.
As mentioned, landmarks are an incredibly useful navigational tool. Landmarks are often the most visible parts of the property and can therefore act as designated waypoints around your space. Wayfinding is all about triggering orientation choices with clear visual cues. Landmarks draw instant recognition, making the directional decision associate with it that much more memorable. When designing a navigational signage system, it&#;s important to consider the most recognisable and memorable parts of the area.
Should there be a series of landmarks, these can be linked through signage. Creating a wayfinding relationship between these points is particularly useful as it naturally focuses the users&#; path and defines and informational space. Too many landmarks can be overkill, of course, so these orientation cues are used sparingly. We can also provide taller signs, such as monoliths and totem signage, to form highly visible reference points which can be spotted from a distance.
An important wayfinding principle is getting the user for A to B in a structured manner. But what makes a well-structured wayfinding path? Each navigational path must have a beginning, middle, and end which is clearly communicated to the user. This should be communicated in a way which guides navigators between points easily without getting lost. Creating directional paths with clearly defined characteristics improves the efficiency of your wayfinding system.
Large areas, such as hospital wards or university campuses with multiple buildings, benefit from well-structed paths. With markers strategically placed throughout the route, location awareness is heightened, letting the navigator know that they&#;re in the right place and heading in the right direction.
Particularly important for navigating in large areas, this wayfinding principle maps out the space into smaller segments sections. This makes the area far easier to map out. The wayfinding trick is to apply clearly defined attributes to each section, giving them their own code and identity. Colour coding is the most popular method of giving each section a unique character, commonly seeing in areas such as airports, with clear indications of where terminals, check in, security etc are. Regions can be as small or as large as is necessary, so long as each is set apart from the rest.
Splitting up the key areas of your facility makes moving between spaces easier. Regions also give cues for recovering your location by creating associations between features such as colour and graphics with specific areas. By assigning character, the location of each segment is boldly defined to the navigator as they stray into them. When designing wayfinding signage for large spaces, Lavastar look for the simplest way to divide the regions up to make navigating easier, whether this be through different colours or fonts.
This principle is all about cohesion and limiting the user&#;s choice. This is achieved by only offering up the most relevant information. You should define one route, or two at a push, which can be listed on signage, regardless of whether there are multiple ways to get between points or not. This prevents confusion and creates a clean, efficient navigational process.
This is of particular importance to spaces such as museums who may want their visitors to head to exhibits in a specific order. Taking the option of detours out of the equation keeps the navigators on your desired path, providing them with the intended experience of your space. It also allows for greater orientation and familiarity of their surroundings.
Similarly, it&#;s important to keep the displayed information as short and sharp as possible. If a wayfinding sign needs reams of text to get the point across then it&#;s ineffective. Get straight to the point and simply point the user in the right direction. Simplicity is everything in wayfinding.
Here at Lavastar, we create bespoke wayfinding signage which align with all core principles. To get the ball rolling on a navigational signage system for your property or project, get in touch with our wayfinding experts today. Give us a call on 020 or fire an over to .
Wayfinding signs, otherwise known as directional signage, maybe one of the oldest types of signs in existence. They have the power to inform people of basic directions, as well as give context and build connections between far flung locations. Perhaps most importantly, these signs allow complex images such as maps and floor plans to be easily remembered by literally pointing people in the right direction. In this blog we will be examining interior wayfinding signs in the context of offices, commercial properties, schools and other public buildings.
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There are two main rules to creating wayfinding signage:
When creating wayfinding signs, there are three main characteristics of how people create mental images of maps in their mind&#;s eye:
There are four main types of wayfinding signs
Identification &#; this is the most common type of wayfinding sign. It tells a person they have arrived at a location. The humble rest room sign may be the best example of this. Other examples of identification signs include:
Directional &#; these signs often feature arrows in order to point a person in the right direction towards a room or building. In order to avoid people getting lost in a large space, frequency is the most important aspect of directional signage. For example, a well-marked system of hiking trails will include directional signage at each trail junction &#; and offering identifying signage such as trail blazes in between junctions to let people know they are on the right track &#; in order to prevent people from getting lost in between signs. Examples include:
Informational &#; this type of signage differs from identification signage in that it describes a more general area. For instance, a Men&#;s Room sign would be identification, whereas a sign over a doorway that reads: &#;Rest Rooms, Elevators, and Vending Machines&#; would be informational. More examples of informational signage include:
Regulatory &#; this is the most ambitious form of wayfinding, where you try to anticipate or react to human behavior and mitigate any problems that may arise. Regulatory signs are generally feature large bold text and are authoritative-looking in order to get peoples&#; attention. They leave little room for interpretation or ambiguity. Examples include:
In order to create a coherent set of signage for an area, building or company a consistent strategy is the key to success. Researching similar businesses and locations are a good way to get ideas on how best to configure your own wayfinding signage. Above all, it&#;s important to stick to a single, uniform, easily-understandable system of graphics &#; in order to ensure a consistent look and avoid any unnecessary confusion.
Wayfinding Signage generally uses a plain, sans-serif typeface for an easily legible and straightforward design. Some older institutions may use a fancier script or art deco style font in order to match historical architecture or exude a more classic look. The most important thing is for these signs to be legible &#; which is why even an older building will use a sans-serif Exit sign for fire safety.
Here are some rules for choosing a proper wayfinding signage font:
A font family with a variety of thicknesses (for example, the NYC Subway uses the Helvetica family, which feature a wide range of &#;letter weights&#; or widths)
A typeface with a large X-height, (aka tall lowercase letters) for easy readability
To make a signage system function, a design grid is used to create a hierarchy of the different types of information you want to convey. They are ranked in order of importance with the signs scaled to different sizes, with the most important signs using the largest type and sign face &#; usually as part of a single font family. For example, you can start with a base grid of 6 inches and subdivisions of 1 inch. All the measurements of a sample will be based on a 1 inch x 1 inch division.
As we stated earlier, consistency is the key to effective wayfinding signage. This is why a versatile font is so important. It is also why materials, colors, and designs need to be uniform and easily understand by people of all ages and abilities. Simple, internationally recognized images, such as those endorsed by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) make great accessories to your signature text that maximizes their ability to communicate. As always, make sure your chosen designs samples are on the record and available for all future contractors and project managers to use. Above all else, it&#;s important not to show too much information on one sign, as the superfluous info will be overlooked. If needed, use multiple signs.
Our sign team is available to guide you in getting the perfect wayfinding signage solution for your business and offices. If you have any kind of questions, feel free to use the below comment section or use our contact us form available on our website.
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