99 Wayfinding
The use of visual information systems to guide people through an environment.
Further Reading
The Society for Experiential Graphic Design, “What Is Wayfinding?,” segd.org/what-wayfinding.
M.R. O’Connor, Wayfinding The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World (St. Martin’s Press, 2019).
The idea of wayfinding was developed in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The urbanist Kevin Lynch in his book The Image of the City outlines five key elements that enables people in a city to legibly find their destination paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks. Interiors of museums, offices, educational buildings, and healthcare and transportation facilities need visual systems that aid in navigating these complex spaces so that users can find their destination.
Maps, symbols and icons, large-scale graphics and directories form the basis of a wayfinding system, which is developed through a series of interviews, user scenarios, and mock-ups to determine a family of signs and place-making elements. Increasingly, the use of non-textual and touch-based elements are being used to address issues of accessibility and access.
Wayfinding systems can be playful and integral to the interior design of a space, and complement decisions about finish and color, while at the same time provide necessary information about use, occupancy, and egress.
Although Kevin Lynch’s paths, edges, districts, nodes, and landmarks reference the exterior environment, his ideas hold true for interior spaces.
The Calgary Library by Snøhetta features signage by Entro that reflects the building’s design.
Vertical wayfinding signs are typical in museum spaces, and can add a snap of color, as seen in the Louisiana Children’s Museum in New Orleans by Studio Matthews, or appear more muted, as in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by OverUnder.