How wayfinding & environmental design impacts user experience
The purpose of custom graphics, wayfinding, and art installation is to enhance user experience in your space. Here are the nuts and bolts of how design choices impact the quality of the experience you offer.
A concerned relative arrives at the hospital. An out-of-towner drops into a market to pick up a couple of ingredients. Hundreds of people gather at an outdoor festival. A convention attendee seeks a restroom.
In these moments, environmental design and wayfinding are the subtle, crucial factors that make or break someone’s ability to navigate a space with ease. Often, a feeling of confusion is what people remember best when recalling their experience in a space. You can have a restaurant with the best chef, food, and silverware, but the guest will mostly remember how they couldn’t find the bathroom.
If you are reading this and feel some concern that your space isn’t delivering the user experience you wish it would, congratulations! Awareness is key, and there are wayfinding and design solutions to help address your unique challenges and constraints.
There are 4 simple ways to improve environmental design & wayfinding in your existing space.
01. Investigate your space
To come up with a savvy solution for your problem, it’s important to understand exactly what the problem is, which means paying close attention to patterns of behavior in your current space.
Watch your visitors (especially new visitors) and take notes on how they move around your space. Where is there a common barrier or challenge that people face? If you see that people are getting lost, pay attention to where their eyes go as they search for a sign, and where they instinctively turn. Walk the space yourself as if you haven’t been there before. Use your customer-facing staff as a resource. They’ll have clear insights on where people get lost or confused based on the questions they are asked most frequently.
This is the first step of our work at Q2. We bring two added benefits to the mix – we are new visitors to your space, so we may see things you do not. We are also expert wayfinders and understand what cues to watch for in your visitors and what they mean.
02. Align your environmental branding with your organization’s branding
Most people who enter your space will have a solid understanding of your brand based on your website and social channels. Using your branding guideline (fonts and color palette) in your wayfinding signs will be familiar and reassuring to them.
Does this sound simple? It is! People are adept at finding patterns, especially when we are trying to make sense of something new. Use this to your advantage to create consistent markers. Your visitors may not even be conscious of how their brains are helping them find their way, but you know the secret!
03. Don’t be too coy
Especially in minimalist, modern buildings, we’ve noticed a trend of equally minimal wayfinding, or the use of signs that are cheeky – perhaps just an icon instead of words. While this may look sleek and artsy, it signals an imbalance between what constitutes award-winning design and what works for the visitor experience.
While minimal or artistic wayfinding might look cool and aligned with the tone of the space, it is ultimately unhelpful in creating a positive user experience. Signs shouldn’t be a puzzle that must be solved – in fact, the best wayfinding is often so clear that your visitors don’t remember the experience of looking for a sign or reading one. When wayfinding is done well, the user experience is straightforward, self-evident, and forgettable; however, we also understand that big bold boring signs can detract from a space. Don’t worry, when it comes to us, there is always a way to achieve form and function.
04. Hire a wayfinding and custom graphics expert early in your project planning
We are often called in long after the final hour – when the building has been open to the public for a few months and challenges are mounting. Although we’re always happy to jump in with our signature creative wayfinding skills, innovative ideas, and can-do attitude, we also find that our clients who wait until this pressing time are strapped for both budget and timeline.
To avoid future stress and constraints, we advocate for designers and clients to take initiative early in the planning process, when there is more flexibility, abundance, and time for us to walk the space, come up with an array of finance-friendly, brand-aligned ideas, and get the most quality out of your budget and the time we have together. It is always far cheaper to design with intention from the beginning than fix the problem down the road.
Ultimately, the goal of all public spaces is to deliver an exceptional user experience. Put your best foot forward by considering intentional environmental branding and wayfinding.
If you are considering art installation, wayfinding signage, and graphics for your project, please reach out to us. We would love to explore your vision, your project scope, and your challenges and come up with tailor-made solutions for your space.
