Both indoors and outdoors, signage can play a significant role in supporting the activities of everyday life.

People assume indoor wayfinding is easy, but complex environments such as hospitals challenge our abilities.

Designers need to devote more attention to wayfinding, but we need to be more observant of our surroundings.

Two recent encounters with wayfinding problems reinforce my belief that good (that is, effective) signage still matters. With the advent and dominance of GPS systems and mobile apps, some people think that being able to find your way is a snap. It isn’t, especially when you are on foot.

Problems With Signage in the Community

Consider this outdoor example from my hometown. I was in my bank parking lot, which borders a busy street, and a woman across the parking lot called out, “Excuse me, can you tell me where the restrooms are?” At first I couldn’t imagine what she meant, but then she continued. “They told me the restrooms are next to the parking lot,” and then she pointed away from where we were standing and down the street. I surmised that she had asked someone waiting in a long line to get into a popular local bakery and was directed to the public restrooms, which do in fact exist and are adjacent to one of two parking lots nearby. There was a restroom sign posted on the street, but it was difficult to see amidst what I will call “signage clutter,” and the arrow on the sign wasn’t easy to make out. I walked over to her and pointed down the street, to the brick restrooms adjacent to the entry to a museum parking lot (see photo).

In this case, her wayfinding problem was solved by assistance from a human being (me) with knowledge of the area. As we all know, human beings with wayfinding knowledge are not always available.

Problems With Indoor Signage

Let’s take an indoor case. Many wayfinding problems occur in........

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