Enhancing Spatial Orientation with Wayfinding Techniques

Wayfinding involves the techniques and processes used to navigate and orient oneself in physical environments, particularly in unfamiliar or complex spaces.

Wayfinding FAQ

Image credit: fuzeinteriors.co.nz

What is wayfinding design?

Wayfinding design is so much more than designing signs – wayfinders are experts in designing urban experiences.

How do I choose a wayfinding design?

When considering wayfinding design in your office or a building, take into account directional, identification, and warning signs. Always use a straightforward design for your signs so that many people can easily understand them. Don’t include too much information; stick to short messages and names.

What is wayfinding & how does it work?

Historically, wayfinding refers to the techniques used by travelers over land and sea to find relatively unmarked and often mislabeled routes. These include but are not limited to dead reckoning, map and compass, astronomical positioning and, more recently, global positioning.

What is wayfinding in psychology?

Wayfinding is the cognitive and corporeal process and experience of locating, following or discovering a route through and to a given space ( Symonds et al, 2017 ). There are also others elements to wayfinding (way faring and way finding) and we discuss these below.

What is a wayfinding system?

Wayfinding refers to information systems providing people with directions to guide them through an environment. Click to learn more.

What are the design principles for wayfinding?

Design Principles for Wayfinding This set of design principles is concerned making information spaces effectively navigable. Navigability means that the navigator can successfully move in the information space from his present location to a destination, even if the location of the destination is imprecisely known.