A Brief Peep into Navigation and Wayfinding Signs

Searching in a new building without a wayfinding sign can turn the whole mood chaotic. The situation can be visualized as "An Earth Man on the Mars Land". These signs help you in not becoming - The Martian. The common (knowledge + sense) is some kind of rare in the 7.1 billion footsteps on this planet. No doubt, there are exceptions but not everyone is a Columbus moving in the search of America. We just have to reach our destination - What else will someone ask for? Though. Both indoor and outdoor strolling need someone to guide them through. Thus, the variables influencing wayfinding include -

Visual Access

Architectural Differentiation

Floor Plan Complexity

Signage and Room Numbers

From wall-mounted maps (on a complex multi-story) to the building setting (vertical and horizontal complexity) - the only difference we can see is the ‘First-Time Visitors’ and ‘Experienced Users’. It’s not limited to navigational signage and wayfinding signs - it’s more than that. They also create awareness about ‘What to do in a situation of an emergency?’, ‘How to manage a disaster?’. In the panic times - for the first-timers, they are of extensive help to figure out the situations. Also in recent times, the social distancing signs are widely used to maintain pandemic protocols and SOPs.

In the parallel universe, sitting in ACs and speaking like a ‘TedEx’ speaker doesn’t make a real-time difference, it generally makes a reel-time difference. To create the former’s impact, you have to conduct a real-time test and nesting on figures, the deployment of these signages should take place.

YOU ARE HERE!

The external signage representations can attract the footfall also. Besides navigating advantage, they improve the wayfinding performance of outperforming maps. Just like the lurking signage of 221B-Baker Street, you can make your own to call the audience loud and clear that we are offering ‘this-and-that.

THE MADE-OF!

The materials are taking a curvy edge these days, as the conventionals and sustainables are getting more debatable in order to safeguard the Earth from these non-recyclables. Curating an environmental signage design is most applaudable and pocket-costly at the same time. But in turn, it creates a brand value on positive notes - that a brand is literally environment conscious. The three-level hierarchy of the signage systems is - Main Entrances> Main Distributor> Supplement Distributor

The information resolution gets refined at each level when the visitor moves further into the building. The color codings and placement decisions add up to the evaluation process.

Getting back to the core of ‘Made-of’ - the signage nowadays includes digital intervention. These digital signboards don’t only navigate but display interesting storylines that make the consumers intact to see them.

Concluding in a subtle way, navigation and wayfinding signs date back to ancient times when people used picture graphics on rocks to communicate and navigate with each other. Not changed much, but the core purpose is the same with a different approach to display them in different places. They act as the eyes to the lost one in the noob place and guide him/her to see the moon face- and that’s on the top roof where the bread bakes.

D'Art Design, a global retail design agency, has developed a global reputation for creating amazing environments that people experience completely and deeply.