The wayfinding design process in seven stages

The wayfinding design process runs in seven stages: brief and constraints, journey analysis, naming, information hierarchy, the sign family, the schedule and its approval, and compliance and handover. Each stage produces something the next one depends on, which is why a wayfinding system designed in that order holds together and one designed sign by sign does not.

Most weak signage schemes were not designed badly. They were designed backwards: sign types chosen first, locations filled in afterwards, names reconciled at the end if at all. The sequence below is the one we follow on hospitals, campuses, residential schemes and data centres in Ireland and the UK. It matches the five stages of our approach, set out here from the wayfinding design side.

Start by settling who the building is for and what it has to cope with. Who arrives, how often, in what state of mind, and by which route? A hospital outpatient department and a data centre campus have different visitors, but both begin with the same questions: what are the audiences, what are the busiest journeys, and what is fixed already?

Fixed things matter early. Planning conditions, fire strategy, the architect's material palette, an existing brand, and the programme all limit what the wayfinding system can do. We work from floor plans and fire drawings, so design can start before the frame is finished. For an occupied building the equivalent first step is a wayfinding audit.

Next, map the journeys that carry most of the traffic, from true arrival: the car park, the bus stop, the gate. Mark every point where a journey forks or changes level. These decision points are where signage earns its place, and they are also where it is most often missing.

• First-time visitor to reception or the main desk.
• Visitor to a named room, clinic or suite.
• Staff, deliveries and contractors using back-of-house routes.
• Disabled visitors on the accessible route end to end.
• The return journey, which is navigated tired and is usually the worst signed.

The output is a marked-up plan of journeys and decision points. It is also the first test of the architecture: where sightlines, light or landmarks already answer the question, the building does the work and no sign is needed.

Names come before signs, because no sign can fix a building that cannot agree what its rooms are called. Agree one visitor-facing name for each destination and use it on the appointment letter, the website, the directory and the door. Decide room-numbering logic, and where bilingual Irish and English naming applies, set both versions now rather than at artwork stage. We cover the detail in room naming.

Then decide what is said where. Information should be disclosed progressively: the entrance carries the major zones, corridors reveal departments as you approach them, and the room detail waits at the door. The destination schedule records this decision, and it is the master document for the rest of the project.

Only now do sign types, typography, pictograms, colour and materials get chosen, and they are chosen to carry the hierarchy rather than to decorate it. A good sign family is small: identification, directional, informational and regulatory signs, each with a clear job and a consistent grammar. Typography, contrast and symbols are tested for legibility at real viewing distances, and materials are chosen for the environment, such as stove-enamelled aluminium for external use.

This is the stage that gets the architect and the client's brand team into the same room, and it is where environmental graphics and the signage system are made to agree.

Each sign is then placed on plan with its location, type, content and fixing, and that becomes the sign schedule. On large projects this is the document that causes most delay, because every sign needs approval from the client, the architect and the contractor. We run approval sign by sign on our platform instead of through PDFs and email, which cuts approvals from months to days and averages 1.8 design rounds. For the schedule data that feeds BIM, see sign schedules and BIM.

Accessibility is designed in from stage one, not checked at the end. In Ireland that means Technical Guidance Document M; in the UK, Approved Document M and BS 8300. Fire and escape signage follows its own rules and has to agree with the wayfinding on the same wall. At handover the project receives the as-built sign schedule, operation and maintenance documentation, certificates signed off by us and a 10-year warranty. The standards library lists the documents we work to.

Planning a new building or a re-sign? See our wayfinding design service or talk to us about the first two stages.