Four types of wayfinding signage

Wayfinding plays a crucial role in various environments, including healthcare facilities, airports, shopping malls, public buildings, educational institutions, public transportation systems, and large event venues. By employing effective wayfinding strategies, designers and facility managers can create user-friendly environments that facilitate smooth and intuitive navigation.

Please visit our website for more information on this topic.

There are four types of wayfinding signs: identification, directional, informational, and regulatory. As standalone signs, they serve a specific role; as part of the greater wayfinding system, they inform each other.

Here&#;s what facility managers need to know about deploying each of the primary wayfinding types.

Types of wayfinding signage

1. Identification

Identification is the most common type of wayfinding signage. They tell a person when they have arrived at their destination. They also serve as general wayfinding landmarks.

Need to get your bearings? Identification signage is there for you. If you&#;re looking for Sales and keep seeing signs for Human Resources, you know you&#;re in the wrong place.

Make identification signs uncluttered and straight to the point. What does the sign signify? Someone should understand it in seconds.

General examples include:

• Door plaques (Assistant to the Regional Manager)
• Departmental markers (Accounting and Finance; Sales)
• Landmark signage (donor plaque; historical marker)

2. Directional

Directional signage helps people get to where they&#;re going. It&#;s an invisible hand guiding them from wherever they are to their destination, one step at a time. They&#;re best used at junctions and areas without a clear traffic flow.

Anyone unfamiliar with their surroundings benefits from diverse directional signage. It can be as simple as a plaque at each junction sending people left or right. Or it may be as comprehensive as colored lines on the floor leading people directly to their destination.

Continuity is key for directional signage. If a person becomes lost anywhere between two points using directional signage, it&#;s immediately invalidated. Picking up the trail again means backtracking or getting lucky.

General examples

• Junction signage (left to cafeteria; right to an exit)
• Colored lines on the floor (blue for marketing; red for sales)
• Directory signage (CEO, 8th floor; HR)

3. Informational

Whereas identification signage marks a particular area, informational signage pertains to the overall facilities. These signs give people the broad information they need while navigating.

Informational signage is best placed in an area with broad exposure. Lobbies, waiting rooms, building entrances, and atriums are popular examples. Signage should answer questions before they&#;re asked. Where are your bathrooms? How late are you open? Do you have an elevator?

Informational signs should be universally understandable with just a glance &#; signs and symbols anyone can understand.

General examples

• Amenities and accommodations (free Wi-Fi; elevators)
• Facilities signage (bathrooms; exits; cafeteria)
• Business information (hours of operation; address numbers)

4. Regulatory

Regulatory signage is a proactive form of wayfinding. It&#;s focused on safety and liability concerns and sets boundaries &#; what is and isn&#;t acceptable in your facilities. It establishes and reinforces rules, safety standards, and privacy expectations.

Regulatory signage is generally big and bold &#; no-frills &#; only a clear, concise, prominent message. Someone probably won&#;t open a closet if there&#;s a &#;Caution! High Voltage!&#; sign on the door. Similarly, displaying a &#;No Pets Allowed&#; sign means Fido isn&#;t welcome.

Use regulatory signage wherever it applies and leave no room for ambiguity. A handicap sign sets a clear precedent like an &#;Employees Only&#; sign on a locked door.

General examples include:

• Rules and regulations (no smoking; no firearms)
• Compliance standards (ADA accessibility; high voltage sign)
• Access control (no entry beyond this point; employees only)

Combining wayfinding signage

Wayfinding is experiential. Every type of wayfinding signage can and should be used with every other. Regulatory signs should keep people out of restricted areas as they follow directional signage to their destination. Identification signage should tell someone where they are so they can follow directional signage to where they want to be. Informational signage &#; coupled with regulatory signage &#; needs to set behavior expectations in your facilities.

Additionally, all signage should be simple. Regardless of its purpose, someone should be able to look at a sign and know in seconds what it says and what it means in relation to wayfinding.

Whatever the information, make sure you have the right mode of delivery. The simpler your signage and the more cohesive it is across all four types, the more effective it will be for anyone using it.

What are the benefits of wayfinding?

Reduced stress and anxiety

Clear and effective wayfinding systems alleviate stress and anxiety associated with getting lost or disoriented. Users can confidently navigate, knowing they can easily find their way and reach their destinations.

Time efficiency

Efficient wayfinding saves time by providing clear directions and information about the shortest and most direct routes. Users can navigate efficiently, minimizing unnecessary detours or confusion.

Improved user experience

A well-designed wayfinding system enhances the overall user experience by making navigation intuitive and user-friendly. It creates a positive impression of the environment and contributes to user satisfaction.

Safety and security

Wayfinding systems play a crucial role in emergencies by guiding users to exits, evacuation routes, or safety facilities. Clear signage and directions help ensure the safety and well-being of individuals during critical incidents.

zigo Product Page

Increased accessibility

Accessibility is a key consideration in wayfinding design. Well-designed systems consider the needs of individuals with disabilities or special requirements, providing inclusive navigation options and features.

Enhancing efficiency of complex spaces

In large and complex environments, such as airports, hospitals, or shopping malls, wayfinding helps users navigate through various facilities, departments, or sections. It streamlines movement and reduces confusion in spaces with multiple levels, buildings, or interconnected areas.

Promoting discoverability

Wayfinding systems can highlight points of interest, amenities, or important destinations within an environment. Users can easily locate areas of interest, such as restrooms, information desks, shops, or specific attractions, enhancing their overall experience.

Branding and identity

Wayfinding design can incorporate branding elements, colors, and visual cues that reinforce the identity of an organization or space. Consistent and well-designed wayfinding contributes to the overall brand image and creates a cohesive user experience.

Enhanced navigation for visitors

Wayfinding systems are particularly valuable for visitors unfamiliar with a location. Clear directions, maps, and signage help visitors feel more comfortable and confident, improving their overall experience and reducing the need for constant assistance.

Optimized space utilization

Efficient wayfinding can guide users through less congested or underutilized areas, helping distribute foot traffic and balancing occupancy within a facility. This can lead to improved efficiency in space utilization and overall facility management.

By Jonathan Davis

Jonathan writes about asset management, maintenance software, and SaaS solutions in his role as a digital content creator at Eptura. He covers trends across industries, including fleet, manufacturing, healthcare, and hospitality, with a focus on delivering thought leadership with actionable insights. Earlier in his career, he wrote textbooks, edited NPC dialogue for video games, and taught English as a foreign language. He holds a master's degree in journalism.

Previous

Podcast ep. 94: The value of relationships in facilities management

Next

Why breakout spaces are essential to the modern workplace

What is Wayfinding?

Wayfinding is the use of signage, color, and other design elements to help occupants navigate a space, and it can be a particularly important design consideration in multifaceted spaces like healthcare complexes or educational campuses.

Wayfinding can be an effective tool to safely manage the movement and flow of people, encourage social distancing, improve user experience, and contribute to a sense of wellbeing and security. How our brains interpret these situations has helped evolve and improve how we implement wayfinding in everyday life.

The Gestalt Theory
Gestalt psychology is based on the idea that the human brain will attempt to simplify and organize complex images or designs with multiple elements. Our brains are designed to see structure and patterns to help us better understand our environment, instead of groups of unequal elements.

Wayfinding uses this psychology in a positive manner, by designing in a way that supports identifying and processing a larger, more complex system instead of a deluge of small components. Wayfinding is important, especially in complex commercial spaces like healthcare and educational facilities where it can provide vital cues in emergency situations when time is of the essence, or offer a stress-free navigational experience.

Flooring design &#; both with color and pattern &#; is one way to implement wayfinding to encourage preferred routes, establish natural transitions between spaces and differentiate between public and private areas.

The Role of Flooring in Wayfinding

Flooring, and its necessary role in everyday life, lends itself as a natural source for wayfinding. It can easily be used to create paths leading occupants through a space and to make navigation at intersections more manageable.

Flooring can also easily subdivide a space into different areas with a distinct set of visual attributes, which assists wayfinding by providing additional cues for orientation. These areas, which are often defined by visual appearance, can set apart distinct building functions such as a waiting area or nurses&#; station.

Whether it&#;s through distinct colors, shapes, or utilizing space, flooring can play a starring role in simplifying wayfinding and defining spaces throughout a variety of facilities.

Examples of Wayfinding

Color and Shape

Bright pops of color and simple, deliberate wayfinding is an excellent choice in areas like an elementary school. See this use of color at Lincoln Douglas Elementary School, where each school grade level was assigned a color and shape. Floor wayfinding helped students find their section of the school, and by implementing shapes into the wayfinding, this aided students with color blindness.

Shapes were further used to provide wayfinding guidance to areas like the school nurse (first aid symbol), or to the tornado shelter (tornado image) for quick and easy identification in emergency situations.

Creating Paths

Our natural tendency, as we learn from the Gestalt theory, is to follow continuous figures like lines, paths, or curves. We can use this to our advantage when designing wayfinding by encouraging flow of movement within a building, like delineating directional corridors. See how the Katherine Johnson Technology Magnet Academy accomplished this through intentional wayfinding design.

This flow of traffic, and its efficiencies, are extremely important in healthcare settings as well. Visual clues like flooring wayfinding not only offer more success helping patients and guests find desired destinations, but it also helps keep patients and guests from entering employee-only areas. UNC Children&#;s Hospital implemented floor wayfinding to great success, easily guiding patients and guests throughout the hospital.

Delineation of Space

In addition to navigation, flooring design can help visually dedicate spaces for collaboration, or areas that can accommodate focused activity or work. These spacing cues do not need to come from physical barriers, but instead flooring can set apart these types of spaces in a cleaner, more open design.

Why Wayfinding Matters

Most people can relate to an extremely difficult navigation experience, whether it&#;s in a store, airport, or another public area. Customers and visitors want to return to spaces that are enjoyable, easy to navigate and convenient. &#; they do not gravitate to places that cause confusion, frustration, or negative experiences.

By using implementing well-designed wayfinding, facilities can create a sense of safety and understanding in unfamiliar places, especially in areas where urgent situations occur. Additionally, well-designed flooring can help delineate space and control the flow of traffic, making the experience better for everyone involved.

Interested in diving deeper into wayfinding? For article references and to learn more, check out our white paper about the intricacies of wayfinding.

Are you interested in learning more about Wayfinding Sign Systems For Hotels? Contact us today to secure an expert consultation!