Wayfinding is a system designed to help people navigate through their journey, and each piece of signage within that system helps support the others. Small mistakes may not damage an overall Wayfinding strategy individually, but they add up to ultimately impact the user’s experience. Some mistakes are particularly common – so it’s important to keep these in mind when you start designing a strategy. They are also a useful barometer to tell if an existing strategy needs some attention.
Signage needs to be clear and obvious – the longer it takes to interpret, the more time it will waste for its reader. Of course, some signs must necessarily be more complex than others, but in all cases it’s important to keep the information contained as concise as possible. It’s easy to overdesign a sign, but simplicity is key to its success.
As a visual medium, the strength of signage is in being able to relay a message through colour and shape just as much as text. Through balancing these factors, you can avoid cramming in too much information, and impart important information concisely.
Signage placement is always important – but it plays a particularly crucial role in a Wayfinding strategy. In helping people find their way, you have to know where signage is most effective and how it will play off of the rest of the environment. One particularly common mistake in this regard is placing signage after a decision point.
If a visitor, for example, has the choice between entering a gift shop or heading for the exit, the sign for the latter should be visible before they pass the shop and not only after they leave. Otherwise, they won’t have the opportunity to make an informed decision and navigate in their own interests. Signage placement cannot be taken individually and must be seen as a whole.
Accessibility is too often forgotten or overlooked, but for a wayfinding strategy to be effective for everyone, their needs must be taken into consideration. For example, you need to consider people with colour blindness when you choose colour. If you’re trying to distinguish two important messages through different colours, you need to ensure they’re just as recognisable to all forms of colour blindness. This goes for the broader wayfinding strategy as well; you need to have different ways to navigate an environment so that someone who can’t use all their senses, or isn’t as mobile, can still find their way effectively.
There are all kinds of ways to help people navigate through an area, and signage is just one of them. Using the right medium is key to ensuring visitor’s journeys are seamless – and it also helps people with disabilities navigate more easily too. These can range from sounds and lights, to making use of real people to guide visitors on their way. However, it’s important to know when using a specific medium is right for the intent of the Wayfinding strategy. For example, the use of sound is less effective in areas where it can be drowned out easily. Likewise, it’s a waste of human resources to send a real person out to guide visitors when a sign will do the job just as well. It’s a common mistake to commit to using a medium you think will be useful in the design stage, despite it falling short in practice.
There are two important sides to ensuring signage is built to last: the first is using quality materials, and the second is keeping it properly maintained over time. If you’re looking to design a Wayfinding project that is intended to be permanent, you need to keep both of these at the forefront of your mind – foregoing either will make the entire process more expensive over time.
It’s a common mistake to skimp on the costs of signage or to avoid maintaining it afterwards, but doing either will result in the Wayfinding strategy decaying more quickly. A successful strategy needs all its parts to work properly to facilitate a seamless journey, so once individual assets begin failing, so will the entire project.
It’s important to avoid these mistakes if you want a strategy to reach its full potential. If you’re in need of a successful Wayfinding strategy, then get in touch – we’ll be glad to help!