Finding Your Way From A-B

Finding your way from

By Emma Green, NATSPEC Communications

Navigating through the built environment is a universal part of life in both public and private spaces. Moving through a space to get from one location to another involves informationgathering and decision-making processes for orientation and movement. This is the overall process of wayfinding. Successful wayfinding design allows people to determine their location and destination, plan their route and execute the plan, negotiating any potential changes.

Wayfinding is a complex cognitive and perceptual process. Designing a successful wayfinding system can therefore be a difficult task. Wayfinding is often addressed solely by signage. However, when a space is holistically designed, meaning that the spatial configuration and information wayfinding are considered in parallel, this facilitates the wayfinding process for users of the built environment.

Successful wayfinding through holistic design is a key tenet of universal design. Universal design is the design of buildings, products or environments to make them accessible and usable to all people of different ages and abilities over time, without the need for adaptation or specialised design.

The NCC does not currently prescribe any performance requirements for wayfinding, although it does outline the Deemed-to-Satisfy provisions for the accessibility requirements of signage in a building. This includes the requirements for Braille and tactile signage, luminance contrast and illumination. Australian Standards indicate requirements for warning and directional tactile ground surface indicators as well as further information about static wayfinding sign information, including the design, location and installation of tactile identification signs.

The Standards and NCC provisions emphasise the consistency of signage, including appropriate fonts, commonly understood pictograms, and the dimensional requirements for Braille and tactile characters. This can be applied to visual wayfinding information, which should be conveyed by a consistent signage system in a consistent graphic style and format. The appropriate size, contrast, form, luminance, lighting and viewing distance related to context of use should be considered. Multiple modes of presenting information may be useful, such as supplementing visual information with auditory and/or tactile information.

While signage is useful as a wayfinding design tool, an overabundance can lead to visual clutter, and without adequate space for circulation, signs can become an obstruction.

By applying the principles of universal design to wayfinding, a space becomes more accessible and usable. A holistic approach to the design should include making wayfinding as intuitive as possible, reducing the need for users to consult maps. Emergency evacuation paths should be clearly indicated and all maps, including emergency evacuation diagrams, should be easy to understand and follow. The location and height of signage is an important consideration for visibility as well as tactile use. Whether signage is suspended, wall-mounted or floor-mounted may also make a difference to its ease of use.

While signage is useful as a wayfinding design tool, an overabundance can lead to visual clutter, and without adequate space for circulation, signs can become an obstruction. Additionally, signs should be at major decision points and provide useful information, as the wrong information received at the wrong location is as helpful as no information at all. Good wayfinding design, however, cannot be wholly dependent on signage as this does not solve any fundamental planning problems.

Providing a clear line of sight and designing an intuitive access path will improve a user’s wayfinding experience. Designers should use specifications to stipulate universal design considerations, including the different routes users may take depending on time of day or mode of travel. NATSPEC TECHnote DES 043 Universal Design: Wayfinding provides further useful considerations for designers.

Wayfinding shapes the way a person experiences a space. By taking universal design principles into account, good wayfinding design can make the built environment more accessible and usable, allowing a greater number of people to make their way from A to B.

NATSPEC is a not-for-profit organisation owned by Government and Industry. It maintains the National Building Specification and has been a valued part of the construction industry for over 45 years. For more information, visit www.natspec.com.au.