• You are here! At the theatre, the restaurant, the theme park, at the university, the museum, or the hospital.
• You are here in the airport, the train station or the metro.
• You are shopping, or visiting a resort.
• You are in the natural environment of a park, or on a busy street. Places were once easy to categorize by use and purpose. Now the distinctions are blurring.
• Retail is entertainment. Entertainment may have an educational component.
• Educational Institutions and entertainment facilities now often incorporate retail.
• Projects involving transportation, urban planning, tourism, recreation,
  retail and identity, utilize signs to communicate with the users

• Wayfinding is the process of introducing a series of instructions which will enable the visitor to find their chosen destination.
• Understanding the traffic flow of the facility will allow an appropriate system to be developed to put the information people need in the proper form and location.
• It is from the first time visitor’s point of view that we approach the act of Wayfinding.
• Limiting the amount of information the user has to simulate at one time will provide a user friendly flow of visitors.
• There are three levels of wayfinding to navigate when approaching a new destination.
  

• Trail Blazers - This first level, indicated by the green circle, applies to the signs which direct traffic from the city streets into the facility.
• It takes about 1 city block for a driver to make a decision to turn. Each decision making point needs to be identified with as much notification as the geography will allow. At this level the international parking symbol ( a” P” in a circle) or the facility name with an arrow is all that is required.
• The transition to the next level, indicated by the blue circle, is to provide clearly marked ENTRANCE and EXIT to insure a safe and smooth traffic flow.
• The third level, in red, is at the point where you Identify the Building by name or address and clearly identify the entrance
  

• Now that you have them on the property you are in the second level of wayfinding. The goal is to bring them through the entrance and it's procedures to the final resting point for their vehicle.
  

• Following the normal traffic sign standards and colors promotes familiarity to international visitors and should be followed when possible.
  ie; yellow & black clearance bars.

• One Way, Do Not Enter
  is an important message at an exit point and as such should be in red color indicating caution.

• Now the visitor has parked their vehicle and enter the Third level of wayfinding. Now the messages are being delivered to a person no longer in the car, but a Pedestrian.
• At this level you must direct them to the stairs, elevators or walkways leading to/from the facility.
  

• Secondary messages such as “No Smoking” or Safety issues are also introduced at this level
  

• Once the visitor is inside the facility a planner must consider the practice of Universal Design, which addresses the scope of accessibility and must make all elements & spaces accessible to and usable by all people to the greatest extent possible.
• At or near the entrance a choice of departments or destinations should be listed in the form of a directory or map which is readily accessible

• Identify Public Facilities such as Washrooms.
  
• Codes & Bylaws for accessibility may vary and should be checked with the local jurisdiction.

• The width to height ratio for letter & numbers on sizes
  is between 3:5 and 1:1.
• The stroke width to height ratio is between 1:5 and 1:10
• San serif letters are better for use in directional signage
• Non glare materials and finished should be used for partially sited people.
• With normal or corrected sight the viewing distance is 50 feet for each 1” of letter height
  

• ALL UPPERCASE TEXT USED IN AN INFORMATIONAL SIGN WITH A LOT OF INFORMATION
• is much more difficult to read than if you use upper and lower case
  
  

• Font and line spacing should be considered for legibility.
• Kerning is a term that is used to define the spacing between the letters. This is determined and automatically adjusted by computers. For example there would be more space created between an “I” and an “L” than between “W” and an “A” to compensate for the visual space created by the nature of the characters involved.
• Creative license sometimes causes a graphic designer to adjust kerning and line spacing for affect or shape suitability.
  

• In a Commercial or Retail situation, use generic terms to direct wayfinding.
• An anchor tenant such as SEARS would
  often be named on a sign.
  

• In the world of Entertainment & Recreation there is room for
  creative design.
• This sign on the Melbourne Exhibition Centre in Australia
  seems to take flight and suggests action.
• Bright colors, jutting angles and giant sized signs &
  supergraphics, with bold great illustrations give this
  building character, making it hard to tell where the graphics
  end and the building begins.
  

• The size of the signs should match that of the building. Seen in context, the giant letters and symbols barely avoid being dwarfed by the building’s scale at the San Jose Arena.
• International style graphic symbols and size make the soaring architecture of O’Hare Int’l Terminal 5
  with it’s cavernous spaces, intelligible to users from
  around the world.

• Use of International Symbols
  promotes easy recognition of
  services and destinations.
• Supplementing these icons with
  simple text when required.

• An impressive, classic style monument serves as the entrance, ticket booth and sign for Caesar’s Magical Empire which features “grand scale illusions” throughout.
  

• Las Vegas is a great example of the overlap between entertainment, architecture, wayfinding and identification.
  
• Retail is entertainment.
  
• Entertainment may have an educational component.
  
• Educational institutions and entertainment facilities now often incorporate retail.
  

• On a School or Business Campus, use of maps is
  often the chosen media.
• Keep maps simple and uncrowded with a lot of
  detail.
• The average person cannot read a detailed map and
  making use of color coding can be a great assistance.
• It is important that the orientation of the map
  matches that of the reader’s point of view.
  

You have completed “You are Here” WAYFINDING THROUGH SIGNAGE. Now click on image to close the window and begin taking the test.