Wayfinding

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Wayfinding encompasses all of the ways in which people (and animals) orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.

Basic process

The basic process of wayfinding involves four stages:

1. Orientation is the attempt to determine one's location, in relation to objects that may be nearby and the desired destination.
2. Route decision is the selection of a course of direction to the destination.
3. Route monitoring is checking to make sure that the selected route is heading towards to the destination.
4. Destination recognition is when the destination is recognized.

Historical

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.

Wayfinding can also refer to the traditional navigation method used by indigenous peoples of Polynesia. The ancient Polynesians and Pacific Islanders mastered the way of wayfinding to explore and settle on the islands of the Pacific. With these skills, some of them were even able to navigate the ocean as well as they could navigate their own land. Despite the dangers of being out at sea for a long time, wayfinding was a way of life. Today, The Polynesian Voyaging Society tries-out the traditional Polynesian ways of navigation. In October 2014, the crew of the Hokuleʻa arrived on another island in Tonga. ^[7]

Modern usage of the term

Recently, wayfinding has been used in the context of architecture to refer to the user experience of orientation and choosing a path within the built environment. Kevin A. Lynch used the term for his 1960 book The Image of the City, where he defined wayfinding as "a consistent use and organization of definite sensory cues from the external environment."

In 1984 environmental psychologist Romedi Passini published the full-length "Wayfinding in Architecture" and expanded the concept to include the use of signage and other graphic communication, visual clues in the built environment, audible communication, tactile elements, including provisions for special-needs users.

The wayfinding concept was further expanded in a further book by renowned Canadian graphic designer Paul Arthur, and Romedi Passini, published in 1992, "Wayfinding: People, Signs and Architecture." The book serves as a veritable wayfinding bible of descriptions, illustrations, and lists, all set into a practical context of how people use both signs and other wayfinding cues to find their way in complex environments. There is an extensive bibliography, including information on exiting information and how effective it has been during emergencies such as fires in public places.

The term wayfinding is also used to refer to the set of architectural or design elements that aid orientation. Today, the term wayshowing suggested by Per Mollerup is used to cover the act of assisting way finding. "Wayshowing>Wayfinding" describes the difference between wayshowing and way finding, and codifies the nine wayfinding strategies we all use when navigating in unknown territories.

In 2010 AHA Press Published "WAYFINDING FOR HEALTHCARE Best Practices for Today's Facilities", written by Randy R. Cooper. The book takes a comprehensive view of Wayfinding specifically for those in search of medical care.

In modern travel and tourism literature, wayfinding can refer to getting between two points in the easiest manner, or to navigating a location for pleasure ("recreational wayfinding").

Wayfinding in architecture, signage and urban planning

Modern wayfinding has begun to incorporate research on why people get lost, how they react to signage and how these systems can be improved. Research and information on Wayfinding can be found at SEGD's Wayfinding information page [4]

Urban planning

An example of a comprehensive urban wayfinding scheme is the Pittsburgh Wayfinder System.

Nashville, Tennessee has introduced a live music wayfinding plan. Posted outside each live music venue is a guitar pick reading Live Music Venue.

Indoor wayfinding

Indoor wayfinding in public buildings such as hospitals is commonly aided by kiosks, indoor maps, and building directories. Such spaces that involve areas outside the normal vocabulary of visitors show the need for a common set of language-independent symbols. Offering indoor maps for handheld mobile devices is becoming common, as are digital information kiosk systems. Other frequent wayfinding aids are the use of color coding and signage clustering.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) represented a milestone in helping to make spaces universally accessible and improving wayfinding for users.

See also

• Desire path
• Environmental psychology
• Orienteering
• Space syntax
• Trail blazing
• Urban planning
• Waymarking
• Wayfinding software

Further reading

• Chris Calori (2007), Signage and Wayfinding Design: A Complete Guide to Creating Environmental Graphic Design Systems, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0-465-06710-7
• Environmental Graphics: Projects and Process from Hunt Design.

Paul Arthur and Romedi Passini "Wayfinding: People, Signs and Architecture", (originally published 1992, McGraw Hill, reissued in a limited commemorative edition in 2002 by SEGD). ISBN 978-0075510161, ISBN 0075510162