Wayfinding Signage – Everything you Need to Know in 2024

Last Updated on December 19, 2023 by DesignerPeople

Wayfinding signages are a constant fixture in our day-to-day lives. Creative wayfinding signages can help people easily find their way into your establishment! This will help them feel comfortable and empowered as they can easily find what they seek without manual assistance.

Starting from building wayfinding signage, retail wayfinding signage, and hospital wayfinding signage to hotel wayfinding signage, airport wayfinding signage and more. Today we will explore the various wayfinding signage designs and their diverse applications. Let’s get started.

What is Wayfinding Signage & Why is it Important?

Wayfinding signage designs help individuals navigate around buildings, apartments, institutions, and other physical destinations. The main goal is to guide them from one point to another through simple and easy-to-decipher visuals. Some advantages of creating visually attractive wayfinding signage designs include the following:

• Creating a safer environment
• Familiarising new visitors through the routes of the establishment
• Generating brand awareness and recognition
• Reducing any possible congestion through the lanes
• Providing a simplified customer and visitor experience

Categorical Breakdown of Wayfinding Signage Types

There are different types of wayfinding signage serving specific roles. Let’s take a brief look at each one of them.

• Identification

These types of wayfinding signages are easy to spot and understand at a glance. Identification wayfinding signage designs always need to be more precise and straightforward. It aims to give individuals quick directions to reach their desired destination from their current location.

Some of the common examples of identification wayfinding signage include:

• • Door plaques
  • Department markers for offices or commercial buildings signages, such as accounting or customer services
  • Donor plaques like park benches, monuments, etc
  • Historical markers

• Directional

Directional signage acts as a guideline to help people reach their destination one at a time. This wayfinding signage is highly beneficial for areas with high traffic or too many lanes. Use simple lines or a variation of colours to create directional wayfinding signage.

However, you must maintain consistency to ensure that even if people lose track of the directions, they can easily pick up the trail by aligning with similar signages of colours or symbols.

Some common areas you can include directional wayfinding signage are:

• • Junction signage
  • Street signs
  • Directional signs within commercial buildings, educational institutions, healthcare buildings and others
  • Highway exits and entrances

• Informational

Similar to the identification wayfinding signage, Informational wayfinding signages are more generalized for the entire building. You can incorporate them in waiting rooms, entrances, and lobbies where multiple people are present. These answer the most fundamental and common questions by people who visit your establishment for the first time or are unfamiliar with the surroundings. Ensure to use symbols and signs that are universally understood. Here are some common examples of informational wayfinding signages:

• • Way to the washrooms
  • Hours of operation of the business
  • The address of the building
  • Free WIFI offerings
  • Location of the elevators or the stairs
  • Location of the cafeteria or the reception

• Regulatory

Regulatory wayfinding signages focus on setting certain boundaries, safety standards and guidelines within the establishment. You can choose bold and bright signs and symbols that make it easy to see and understand even if they do not speak your language. Some common examples of regulatory wayfinding signages are:

• • Speed limit signs
  • High voltage signs
  • Caution
  • COVID face mask signs
  • No pets

Diverse Applications & Uses of Wayfinding Signage

The key to creating effective wayfinding signage is to have clear goals for the process. Some can include easing the customer flow through the store, assisting patients through different hospital sections and more. Here are the diverse applications and uses of wayfinding signage that can help you create the most accurate signage board for your building. Let’s get started.

• Building Wayfinding Signage: Navigating Large Complexes

Wayfinding signages play a significant role in developing solid building safety, especially with the day-to-day operations of the building, including emergency evacuations. It can effectively reduce the traffic flow of the occupants that travel through the building. Ensure to install the signage in areas with the heaviest foot traffic, such as lobbies, reception areas, etc. Visible signage placed at an eye-level location can quickly increase readability and decrease any chances of confusion, especially in crowded areas.

• Retail Wayfinding Signage: Guiding Customers through Stores

Retail wayfinding signages can improve the overall customer experience with your business. There are numerous ways to incorporate retail wayfinding signage.

For starters, you can include overhead signage in supermarkets or homeware stores, guiding customers through the shopping experience. These are usually situated at the top, indicating the type of products located below. Consider the height of the aisles and shelving units when choosing the placement of the overhead signages. Similarly, aisle signages are also great for assisting consumers throughout the various categories of the store, resulting in increased convenience and purchases.

Next, freestanding wayfinding signages are an excellent choice for large department stores as it covers various floors and departments for more straightforward navigation of the consumers. For higher visibility, consider adding freestanding wayfinding signages in areas like foyers, outside of lifts, etc.

Wall and door signages act as directional wayfinding signage for retail stores, including public toilets, store exits or checkouts, etc. Sure, it must remain as visible as the other signs but not distract customers.

• Hospital Wayfinding Signage: Easing Navigation in Medical Facilities

Hospital wayfinding signages aim at fostering customer and patient relations in hospitals and medical facilities. Stumbling upon multiple doors without directions, especially with a severe patient, is catastrophic! For first-time visitors and patients, ensure that you create simple hospital wayfinding signages that simplify the entire navigation process. Create well-structured paths to help them understand the sign and quickly reach the desired direction.

• Hotel Wayfinding Signage: Enhancing Guest Experience

In the hospitality sector, your choice of wayfinding signage significantly contributes to the overall guest experience. This will help guests connect with the establishment and enjoy a memorable stay. Start with an audit when creating a hotel wayfinding signage to determine the information people may require, like parking signages, washroom signages, receptions, etc. Add creative elements to your signage designs in a simplified manner, such as logos, colours, fonts, etc. This will enhance the readability of the signage while making it more appealing to the guests.

• Office Wayfinding Signage: Streamlining Workplace Navigation

Offices usually range across multiple floors, buildings, departments and lanes. Navigating through many doors and lanes to the desired location can be challenging for new employees or visitors. Office wayfinding can simplify any such complex navigation with ease. Choose bright colours for office directional signs that can quickly draw the viewer’s attention as they pass by. You can place them on the elevators, corridors, etc., which will notify your visitors if they are in the right direction. Using arrows is also a great way to communicate with your visitors about which way to go.

• Campus Wayfinding Signage: Navigating Educational Institutions

Getting lost on a new campus can get extremely overwhelming, especially for new students, staff members, etc. People on campuses have different priorities. Hence, campus wayfinding signage is essential to assist them throughout the journey.

Consider different people when creating campus or college wayfinding signages, such as differently abled, visually impaired, language impaired, etc. Ensure to include exclusivity to all the signages for improved navigation and experiences. Erecting pillars and wall signs are some popular choices for campus wayfinding signage.

• Museum Wayfinding Signage: Enriching Visitor Experience

Most people end up getting lost in museums amidst interesting treasures and artefacts. This is essential because museum architecture can get inconsistent and obscure. Museum wayfinding signages can help people locate the desired object, artefact, gallery or exhibition in such big properties. Ensure to communicate with the staff and volunteers for feedback regarding the areas where most people need clarification. This will help you find possible solutions based on the needs of the people. Stay open, accessible and flexible while creating the wayfinding signage designs for your visitors. They must effectively understand the signs and symbols to navigate the place irrespective of their location.

• Stadium Wayfinding Signage: Guiding Sports Enthusiasts

When fans head to the stadium, they are always excited about their favourite teams! In such memorable events, the last thing they want is to get lost in such a massive area. To improve their experience, building a safe, secure and stress-free environment using stadium wayfinding signage designs is essential.

Safety signages are mandatory in every stadium, such as no smoking signs, emergency exits, etc. Next, always consider adding information signs to help people with the maps or plans in and around the stadium. Ensure that all of these signage designs must have clear and concise directions for the convenience of the people.

• Airport Wayfinding Signage: Assisting Travellers

People tend to get lost in the airports very quickly. Starting from the boarding sections to picking up their luggage and more. Most people require assistance, especially when visiting the country for the first time. Hence, route indications using airport wayfinding signage designs must assist everybody throughout the journey. There are numerous print and digital options for creating impactful airport signage designs. However, just like others, ensure to maintain exclusivity through all the signage designs as airports cover diverse individuals looking to explore the country for the first time!

• Architectural Wayfinding Signage: Integrating Design and Functionality

Architectural wayfinding signages are essential to navigate various architectural buildings, especially for people exploring them for the first time. The right choice of colours, large-scale graphics and interior landmarks will help them enjoy the most authentic essence of the architectural entity without any confusion. You can also find some quick facts and figures in some architectural wayfinding signage designs to describe the architectural building for a better experience briefly.

Conclusion

Wayfinding signage designs offer countless advantages. It reduces the stress and anxiety of navigating a new area or building. People can easily find their way without ever getting lost or disoriented. It also saves their time and effort, resulting in an improved user experience. Wayfinding systems also play a significant role in maintaining emergencies and facilities for people.

Since wayfinding signage designs aim to help people through complex systems and buildings, choosing professional wayfinding signage designer is essential. They already have previous experience in creating well-laid and systematic wayfinding signage designs for establishments that will contribute to a memorable experience for every visitor!

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Author: Megha Malik