Let&#;s talk about the 5 Principles of Wayfinding and why each aspect is instrumental to a comprehensive navigation system. When it comes to wayfinding, it&#;s important that the user doesn&#;t have to overthink. Instead, you should create a visual communication system that is clear and consistent with concise messaging. It&#;s also important that you only show what is needed. Any excess information will quickly become background noise and clutter in the users&#; mind, ultimately confusing their journey. Therefore, we advise you only show what is relevant to space, location and journey.
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Additionally, just as you are adding information to the user journey, it&#;s also essential to remove excessive information. Keeping all of this in mind, these are the 5 Principles of Wayfinding that should be emphasized within a navigation system: Journey, Legibility, Accessibility, Design and Consistency.
Before we can begin to look at signage, understanding the journey is key. It&#;s important to consider the different paths, desire lines and natural routes through and around the area. In wayfinding, desire lines are unplanned pathways that users will take when going through space. These are often seen as shortcuts and a more natural route to a chosen destination. In some circumstances, designers will leave parks without planned paths to see which routes park-goers will naturally gravitate to. With this information, they will then put in paths accordingly.
When thinking about the user journey it&#;s also a great idea to think about the different landmarks and public transport considerations within the area. For more information about wayfinding and where the term came from, check out this book.
The next principle of wayfinding is legibility. It is paramount that every wayfinding system is legible and easy to use and understand. Providing users with the right information at the right time will make their journey much easier. For example, have you ever been in a space where you&#;re overloaded with information and directional signage to the point where they may as well have left it all blank? This is why it&#;s crucial that you eliminate clutter and use an easily digestible design with language that is simple yet effective. You may also consider making colours, signs and other design techniques unique to each location, that way each place is easily distinguishable.
In the world of wayfinding, legibility and accessibility go hand in hand. When you think of navigation, it can be easy to overlook the needs of those who don&#;t have the same capabilities as the majority of people moving through space. For example, when developing a wayfinding system, it&#;s crucial that it is accessible to all including those who have visual and physical impairments as well as those with language barriers. For more information, take a look at our recent article on Accessibility and Legibility in Wayfinding Design.
Accessibility within wayfinding extends to a lot of different types of media. For example, a systems signage needs to have the same accessibility as does it&#;s apps and technology. Here&#;s our guest article on Setting the Standards for Signs of Accessibility that goes into detail about making built environments and spaces more accessible.
It&#;s no surprise that strong, clear design is imperative in wayfinding. Colour, typography and pictograms are all essential elements of signage design. It&#;s also a great idea to keep in mind branding considerations if they&#;re relevant to the environment. When designing the maps used in a wayfinding system, they need to be easy to read and adaptable to the different formats they will be found in. For example, a map needs to be consistent across printed and digital signage. More information about the importance of maps in wayfinding can be found here.
The fifth and final principle of wayfinding is consistency. Once you have all of the above set in stone, it&#;s crucial that you keep it going even after the project has been completed. A great way to ensure consistency is upkept is through Wayfinding Guidelines. Additionally, you should monitor the system, look out for any issues and update any necessary information. Consistency allows for adaptable and therefore more usable navigation.
Overall, wayfinding design is a complex process that has a lot of considerations, mainly involving the 5 key principles we spoke about in this article. To recap, Journey, Legibility, Accessibility, Design and Consistency should be front of mind when developing a navigation system.
If you have any questions about Wayfinding or it&#;s different applications, please feel free to get in touch. We&#;d be happy to have a chat.
A close alliance between environmental graphic design and airport architecture may seem unlikely at first, but these fields are remarkably interdependent. This post brings the two together to explore how to stay safe when the world starts traveling again.
Fast forward to when you&#;re ready to take your next flight. Maybe that&#;s six months from now. Maybe longer. Maybe, depending on your job, family situation, or other circumstances out of your control, your next flight is already on the horizon. When that day comes, what&#;s it going to take to make you feel safe?
Transportation hubs &#; especially airports &#; were anxiety triggers long before we had to deal with a global pandemic. To dispel that unease, designers have successfully deployed signage and wayfinding strategies to guide travelers through unfamiliar environments while communicating across languages and cultures.
The best signage and wayfinding strategies are often unseen, conveying the bare minimum amount of information to get you from point A to point B. If, at the end of the trip, you didn&#;t remember a single thing about the signs that brought you home, that was a good thing.
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In the short term, this will change. A more &#;in your face&#; strategy is needed for COVID-19 and the need to distance ourselves from other travelers. The stakes are too high to risk someone missing the message.
Phase 1: Manage the queueA primary hot button issue now, and for the immediate future, is queuing. We are seeing ad hoc solutions pop up all over the place, with the most popular strategy of putting stickers or tape on the floor at six-foot intervals in queuing areas. These floor graphics could become much more sophisticated and effective.
We&#;re thinking about air travel in particular here, but the strategy is relevant wherever queuing happens. Subway stations, bus stops, clothing retailers, and restaurant chains are likely to implement similar measures.
Airports happen to have a high number of places where pedestrian traffic clogs up. Imagine the journey from curbside drop off to the TSA line to baggage claim &#; graphic cues and explicit signage will be especially important in shaping behavior as travelers move through that journey.
Beyond social distancing, we may want to remind passengers to wash their hands or cough into their elbows with strategically placed signage.
Temporary sticker solutions could also be placed on doors or anywhere we interact with the physical environment. We can do it elegantly and in a manner that grabs your attention, striking a balance that gets at the heart of graphic design&#;s social purpose.
Phase 2: Invest in digital wayfindingIn the long term, there will be a more fundamental change. Over the past 20 years, we&#;ve learned to take trends with a grain of salt. But the move towards digital signage and wayfinding design is much more than a trend. This moment is a tipping point for design. The future will be digital, and it will be flexible.
While analog signage strategies work well in normal times, they leave much to be desired in a crisis. They are too static. Transit hubs must now accept the fact that they might need to change their messages and norms on a dime.
Here&#;s how it can play out:
We&#;ve been moving towards this flexibility for some time. Years ago, we implemented a signage and wayfinding system for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. There, the design uses a system of panels that nest seamlessly in each sign &#; using an industrial-strength hook-and-loop material to make them easily changeable. In the near future, the airport could swap in a premade message, symbol, or arrow panel to an existing sign rather than order an entirely new sign. This was an important evolution in our thinking that also happened to be a cost-saving measure. New digital technologies push this flexibility even further.
The potential upside for digital signage and wayfinding is boundless. A digital strategy can bring clarity to the passenger experience, which will have to integrate a series of new behaviors. Top of mind for any traveler getting off a plane or subway will be where to find the nearest hand-washing or sanitizing station, a new first step that will require clear guidance.
The same concern could also impact our new shopping experiences &#; both inside and outside transportation hubs. With grocery stores and other retailers implementing temporarily lowered maximum capacities, digital displays and sensors could let people know how full a store is before they enter, and what their estimated wait time might be.
Technology also opens the door for a new level of emotional resonance. We won&#;t be shaking hands for a while, but personalized messaging that lets us know we are welcome and safe can bring some humanity back to the travel experience.
In such uncertain times, there is solace to be found in consistency. The principles for successful signage and wayfinding projects are largely the same across airports, workplaces, hospitals, universities, and even cities.
We started by asking what it would take for you to feel safe enough to fly again, but in reality, that&#;s a question we&#;ll face for every single activity we resume.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of Traffic Hubs Wayfinding Signage System. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.