Last week The Velvet Principle attended a symposium hosted by the SDS and SEGD London Chapter focussing on inclusive design for wayfinding information. The event featured a series of thought-provoking presentations exploring the ‘what, why, when and how’ of inclusive design. Distilling what was a packed agenda into a few takeaways, is a challenge, but these were some of the highlights and key reminders for any wayfinding consultant and designer.
The design of the wayfinding signs needed to align with the client’s sustainability and wellness targets – BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Core Gold. To meet these challenges the design minimised the volume of material by applying the information as individual characters directly to the building surfaces
With the emphasis in design consultancy tending to be on the new and innovative, we’ve come to expect detailed design reports and strategies; multi-component product specifications and manufacturing lead times spanning several months. But sometimes low tech solutions, that just use whatever is to hand can work so well – like this low tech wayfinding design at Orford Ness.
Cost-effective and pragmatic sign design implemented across five apartment buildings within the Phoenix Community Housing estate, to comply with Fire Safety Regulations
Beyond the aesthetics, colour has an important functional role in wayfinding design. Colour is often used to distinguish between floor levels, routes and different activity zones. For many people, colour offers a very clear and easy to follow intuitive cue to assist with navigation.
With an estimated 8% of the male population and 0.5% of the female population worldwide having some degree of colour vision deficiency, here’s some guidance on how to ensure the information is accessible
The Government has launched a £200m fund to help Local Authorities make improvements and upgrade pedestrian and cycle routes and paths. Clearly creating safe and attractive routes is critical if we’re to be persuaded to ditch cars in favour of cycling and walking. Importantly, we also need to know where these car free, safe or green route options are and where they can get us to.
A few weeks ago I set off from home in West London on a 25km circular walk. Following paths and trails, flanked by trees, waterways and open spaces. With London’s reputation as one of the world’s most congested cities – I find that amazing.
It’s one of those conundrums – you’re going out to tender because you don’t have the internal expertise to fulfil an identified need. Yet for cost surety and ensure you hire the best person for the job, you need to be sufficiently knowledgeable to define exactly what you want. Leave anything open to interpretation and you’ll end up comparing apples with pears in your tender responses.
Whether it’s your first time, or you’re a seasoned procurer, this is intended as a checklist to assist in framing the scope for a wayfinding project.
If you’re about to procure or project manage a wayfinding project for the first time, this article will help you understand what to expect during the development process.
To maintain the integrity of the investment, it is important that your wayfinding information is updated to reflect any changes to building structures, brand identities and use of space. Rather than introduce another layer of information or limit attention to the affected area, these changes should be integrated seamlessly within the existing wayfinding. Otherwise, you risk creating unnecessary visual clutter, confusion and achieving lower than expected footfall. To do this successfully you need to know exactly what information is currently provided, in what form and where. In other words a wayfinding audit that catalogues the location, content and design parameters of your existing signs.