wayfinding

Wayfinding

Wayfinding is an aspect of the built environment that truly spans both the architectural and the graphical realms. It is a field in which you must perfectly combine a personal, distinctive design voice with usability and convention. Great wayfinding design is a true fusion of both form and function.

Wayfinding refers to the design of elements that help people to orient themselves and navigate from place to place. The most obvious type that come to mind is signage – everything from street signs to shopping centre directories.Wayfinding devices can be built into the environment, or made to stand out and draw attention to themselves.

There is a fine balance that must be walked with wayfinding for a particular built environment. The style and look must match that of the building, and the surrounding environment. It must blend in, and feel as though it is related. At the same time, there are constraints that must be kept in mind relating to visibility, readability and ease of use of the wayfinding. After all, if it is not functional, it is redundant.

At Design+Build we are going to start taking a more in depth look at wayfinding, particularly the ways in which the architectural and the graphical work together.

Further Reading:

Arrow and Icons is a great site about Environmental Design (which includes wayfinding).

idlab is a firm in melbourne that specialises in wayfinding and other related work.

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Tags: design, graphic, intro, signage, wayfinding