This arti­cle is a intro­duc­tion to sig­nage design and how wayfind­ing works.

You will learn about wayfind­ing, sig­nage design and typog­ra­phy to cre­ate a clear and con­cise wayfind­ing sys­tem that applies the build envi­ron­ment. Please enjoy this arti­cle and let me know your thoughts!

Wayfind­ing basics

Nav­i­ga­tion from place to place is a fun­da­men­tal human activ­ity and an inte­gral part of every­day life. Where are you? Where are you head­ing to? Peo­ple use their knowl­edge and pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences to find their way in the build envi­ron­ment. The human per­cep­tion of the build envi­ron­ment and infor­ma­tion in a space comes down to bal­ance and focus. What do you see? Why did you see it? What did you do with the infor­ma­tion.
Wayfind­ing has the func­tion to inform peo­ple of the sur­round­ings in the (unfa­mil­iar) build envi­ron­ment, it is impor­tant to show infor­ma­tion at strate­gic points to guide peo­ple into the right direc­tions. Com­plex struc­tures in the build envi­ron­ment are inter­preted and stored by the human mem­ory. Dis­tances, loca­tions and time may be remem­bered dif­fer­ently than as they appear to be in reality.

An effec­tive wayfind­ing sys­tem is based on human behav­ior and con­sists of the fol­low­ing characteristics:

• Do not make them think
  Cre­ate a com­pre­hen­sive, clear and con­sis­tent visual com­mu­ni­ca­tion sys­tem with con­cise messaging.
• Show only what is needed
  Show infor­ma­tion what rel­e­vant is to the space, loca­tion and / or nav­i­ga­tion path.
• Remove exces­sive infor­ma­tion
  Remove unnec­es­sary ele­ments to cre­ate a clear visual envi­ron­ment ahead.

How does wayfind­ing work?

How do peo­ple ori­en­tate, nav­i­gate or remem­ber the build envi­ron­ment? Why will peo­ple rec­og­nize or under­stand one place eas­ier than another? As shown in the images on the left, a geo­graph­i­cal map ver­sus cog­ni­tive (men­tal) map = real­ity ver­sus human men­tal mem­ory. When cre­at­ing a wayfind­ing scheme the fol­low­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics influ­ences the way we inter­preted the build environment.

• Land­marks
  To cre­ate a leg­i­ble envi­ron­ment it is nec­es­sary to mark spe­cific spaces and / or loca­tions. This rein­forces the recog­ni­tion of places and plays a part in over­see­ing a larger area. With the use of land­marks and mark­ing ele­ments an area will become more vis­i­ble and will be under­stand bet­ter in the human mem­ory. Land­marks can be art-objects, build­ings, stree­tart, wayfind­ing signs or strik­ing ele­ments in a land­scape. These ele­ments com­bined will shape the iden­tity of an (unknown) area as seen from your perspective.
  
  
• Ori­en­ta­tion
  In order to nav­i­gate, you need to know where you are in the build envi­ron­ment and where other des­ti­na­tions are located. Prefer­able it is good to know the dis­tance in time from one place to another. If you are able to ori­en­tate your­self within the build envi­ron­ment, it will be eas­ier to under­stand des­ti­na­tions and to nav­i­gate by land­marks. In wayfind­ing, maps are com­mon used to indi­cate your loca­tion. The usage of maps is a very pow­er­ful way of express­ing and over­see­ing the build envi­ron­ment. Be sure to dis­play the maps heads-up in the direc­tion you are fac­ing, this way you can easy relate your­self to the build environment.
  
  
• Nav­i­ga­tion
  Nav­i­gat­ing the phys­i­cal ref­er­ence to a par­tic­u­lar area, set­ting or des­ti­na­tion. With the usage of direc­tional (sta­tic) signs peo­ple will be guided along their path towards destination(s).

Strate­gic wayfind­ing design

When cre­at­ing a sig­nage sys­tem for an area, build­ing or archi­tec­tural struc­ture it is essen­tial to develop a strate­gic wayfind­ing scheme. With this step you are able to build up a mod­u­lar wayfind­ing sys­tem that will adapt to the build envi­ron­ment and the human expec­ta­tions for ori­en­ta­tion and nav­i­ga­tion pur­poses. Research is an impor­tant step to under­stand the build envi­ron­ment and where infor­ma­tion is needed to max­i­mize leg­i­bil­ity of the wayfind­ing system.

Sig­nage design basics

In basics there are four impor­tant type of signs: Infor­ma­tion signs, for instance a sign­pole with locate a des­ti­na­tion and / or to ori­en­tate your­self in the build envi­ron­ment. Direc­tional signs, where infor­ma­tion is dis­played to find des­ti­na­tions, located on sev­eral strate­gic points in the build envi­ron­ment. Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion signs, where infor­ma­tion about indi­vid­ual loca­tions is dis­played such as build­ings, loca­tions and pub­lic facil­i­ties. Warn­ing signs, to indi­cate safety pro­ce­dures such as a fire escape routes, no smok­ing areas and other reg­u­la­tions that is, or is not allowed in a spe­cific area.

To make a sig­nage sys­tem work together a design grid is used to order infor­ma­tion and to scale the signs to dif­fer­ent sizes, as part of the sign fam­ily. With the exam­ple design I have used a base grid of 30 mm (milime­ters) with a sub­di­vi­sion of 9. All the mea­sure­ments of the exam­ple are based on the 9x9 divi­sion. Be care­ful not to show too much infor­ma­tion into one sign, this will be eas­ily over­looked, instead use mul­ti­ple signs to get good wayfind­ing results.

Sig­nage typeface

A sig­nage type­face is usu­ally a sans-serif type and avail­able in var­i­ous weights with a sim­ple easy-to-read straight­for­ward design. They have a good leg­i­bil­ity with a large X-Height and wide let­ter pro­por­tions with promi­nent ascen­ders / descen­ders to ensure a good readability.

When using an easy-to-read font the type­face is rec­og­niz­able for many peo­ple to read and to under­stand the mes­sage clearly. There­fore the choice of a sig­nage type­face is one of the key­fac­tors in order to make a wayfind­ing sys­tem work. When select­ing a type­face for a sig­nage design / wayfind­ing project please use the fol­low­ing characteristics:

• A clear and straight­for­ward type design, sans-serif
• Easy rec­og­niz­able letterforms
• Pos­i­tive let­ter spac­ing to enhance the visual appearance
• The Font Fam­ily includes a pack­age of many dif­fer­ent weights
• The type­face has a large X-height for good readability

In a follow-up arti­cle on design­work­plan I will go deeper into select­ing type­faces for sig­nage design / wayfinding.

Sig­nage design

Be con­sis­tent in typog­ra­phy, type height, icons, grid design, color and mate­r­ial choice. The signs needs to be straight for­ward designed and in a con­sis­tent order to wayfind­ing scheme, always use the same order of dis­play­ing the infor­ma­tion. Remem­ber to make sam­ples of the dif­fer­ent sign types and check them in the build envi­ron­ment to ensure it becomes a best-practice design.

See the arti­cle about sig­nage and color con­trast for more infor­ma­tion about color usage in wayfinding.

Next up

Please let me know your thoughts about sig­nage design and wayfind­ing in the com­ments. Thank you!