The term &#;wayfinding&#; was first used by Kevin Lynch, an educator and urban planner in his seminal book &#;The Image of the City&#;. He described the city in terms of its physical forms that can be classified into five types of elements: paths, edges, districts, nodes and landmarks. These elements help people to form a mental model to make sense of their surroundings in predictable and consistent ways.
Image from designworkplanPaths provide the framework for wayfinding as they directly facilitate movement. In urban design, these may be streets, walkways, transit lines.
In digital spaces, there is no sense of movement. Wayfinding cues are embedded to give users a sense of where they are, how they got to a certain page and where they might want to go.
The path that users have taken in a digital space can be indicated using the following cues:
Changing the colour of visited site links gives users visual confirmation of where they have already been.
The use of a breadcrumb trail in website design shows users where they are in a system and the path that is typically taken to reach a particular page. This works well for websites with a more complex information architecture with several levels of hierarchy.
For users who landed on a page from an external source, a breadcrumb trail serves to orientate the users to how information is organised on the site and leads them to other relevant pages.
Example of a breadcrumb trail on the Tate Modern websiteA breadcrumb trail is commonly used to guide users on the path of checking out.In urban design, districts break the city down into smaller, digestible pieces. Each district comprise of areas that share common, identifying characteristics. The transition from one district to another provides clues for people to navigate their surroundings.
In the digital space, districts can be thought of as primary navigation items in an information architecture structure, sections of a site catered to different profiles of users, or tabs in an app indicating different features or sections.
To navigate between &#;districts&#; in a digital space, the following wayfinding cues can be applied.
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Mega menus are a type of expandable menu accommodating a large number of options divided into contextual groups or categories. The lower-level site pages are visible at a glance.
In the following example, Carousell, a marketplace platform, users a mega menu showing the broader categories and the more specific sub-categories that fall under each group. The naming and separation of sub-categories are more granular, so that users can search for specific items more easily.
Mega menu adopted by Carousell, a marketplace platformOn an app, the bottom navigation bar consists of different icons that give users direct access to different sections of the app. Each section is distinct and allows the users to carry out a different function (such as browsing, reviewing items in carts, edit profile settings).
Sites that have information catered to different groups of users signage to them with the use of distinct CTA buttons, bringing users directly to the page that is most relevant to them instead of having them navigate the menu to look for what they need.
Nodes are intersections or hubs of a city. They mark points where decisions are to be made.
In the digital space, decision points for users arise at the landing page. Users can navigate to where they want to go using menu bars. Menu bars should be familiar and consistently placed on every single page of the site.
Besides the menu bars, users can also navigate using CTA buttons on the landing page. For example, the UCLA Health website provides these shortcuts for users on its landing page. In determining what shortcuts should be provided to users on the landing page, this should be supported by user research to identify the primary goals that users want to achieve on a website.
In urban design, landmarks are identifiable buildings or physical objects that serve as a reference point. They help people to establish their direction or position. In the digital space, landmarks would be elements that help users to orientate or provide navigation cues.
In conclusion, wayfinding cues should align with the needs of users, helping users to meet their goals in an efficient manner. A good wayfinding system tells users where they are, enable them to find what they are looking for quickly and enable users to accomplish their goals efficiently.
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