Wayfinding is an unsung hero. Often taken for granted, it plays a vital role directing people around facilities and outdoor areas.
Our infographic below explains why you should care about wayfinding, lists the primary elements that make up good wayfinding, as well as comparing the benefits and negatives of each type of wayfinding signage.
When you easily find your desired destination you don’t think twice about the signage that helped you get there.
Wayfinding is an unsung hero. It quietly helps you to orientate where you are and how to get where you need to be. However, wayfinding doesn’t just help people find their way around a facility. It can also improve your bottom line. A study conducted in 3 major hospitals discovered that over $2 million dollars annually of staff time was being lost due to them having to direct and escort visitors around their facilities.
Good wayfinding will also encourage customers and visitors to return if they have a positive experience visiting your premises. Whereas, if someone has a negative experience trying to find their way around then it’s more likely they won’t want to return. Successful wayfinding can also impact the way people behave towards one another. For example, two hospitals in the UK implemented a new wayfinding system in their A&E Departments and discovered that this helped to reduce aggressive incidents by 50%.
Additionally, wayfinding can be used to reinforce your brand through the use of consistently branded signage. If you’re thinking about getting a new wayfinding suite for your facility, or upgrading what you already have, you need to consider what type of information you want to communicate and the type of wayfinding signage that will suit your property. There are four categories of information wayfinding communicates, these are:
- identification (communicating what something is, e.g. toliets)
- directional (points you in the direction of where you need to go)
- orientation (provides phentermine an overview of surroundings, e.g. you are here map)
- regulatory (a sign indicating regulations or requirements, .e.g. no smoking or fire exit signs)
It’s not just what your wayfinding signage says, but also how it says it. Good wayfinding needs to be easily seen and understood by the people it’s trying to communicate to. Signage which successfully achieves this will have appropriate colour, contrast, size, and typography choice.
When you’ve considered what and how you need to say, you also need to think which type of wayfinding signage best suits your facility. There are three main types of wayfinding signage, bespoke/custom made, modular, and digital signage – each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
- Bespoke is great if you are after signage with a high design element and need something specifically created. However, it’s generally costly and can’t adapt with your facility as it changes.
- Whereas, a modular system is a much more cost effective option and does has the ability to adapt with your facility, but creative freedom is ultimately restricted by its predetermined panels.
- Finally, digital signage is another form of wayfinding signage. Digital signage allows messages to be deployed quickly to different locations and can have an interactive ability. However, the technology will eventually date and generally costs more in comparison to traditional wayfinding signage.
Interested in modular signage? Our eCORE Signage System is a cost effective modular system for interior and exterior environments. Speak to a signage specialist about wayfinding at your facility today.
