Good, clear, unambiguous wayfinding signage is the key to making your premises easy to navigate for your visitors, staff, and customers. However, an inefficient wayfinding system can have the precise opposite effect, causing people to get lost, frustrated, and stressed. In this article, we look at three clear signs that it’s time to refresh your wayfinding signage:
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way. The biggest and most obvious sign that your wayfinding signage needs updating is if people are getting lost and frustrated. We say lost and frustrated because the latter invariably follows the former. You’ll know that people are getting lost if customers are late for appointments, if visitors take a disproportionate amount of time travelling from A to B in your facility (an especially crucial issue on large campuses such as hospitals and universities. We know someone who nearly missed his wife’s 20-week ante-natal scan appointment while lost in a maze of poorly marked hospital corridors!), and if your staff are continually asked for directions. Frustration may be expressed in gripes on social media, off-the-cuff comments, and even poor reviews.
If this is the case in your organisation, it’s worth taking an audit of your signage to find out if any are missing, ambiguous, or difficult to read. This could indicate that a partial or full upgrade is overdue. And even if there isn’t any obvious physical damage or deficiency, some soul-searching from time to time about how you can improve your signage to align with the needs of your customers and service users is never a bad thing. Often, fairly small and inexpensive upgrades can make a big difference to the customer experience. A central digital information point, for instance, can often do the job of a complex network of physical signs, and help people navigate around your facility more quickly and easily.
Wayfinding signage can set the tone for your entire premises and the customer experience, and, unfortunately, first impressions matter. Faded, damaged, or simply outdated-looking signage can immediately send the wrong message about your organisation. If graphics are tired, the fonts are no longer commonly used, and, basically, your signs look like they were designed decades ago, then they may no longer be the best ambassadors for your brand. It’s fairly straightforward to update your wayfinding signage to reflect your current organisational identity and ethos. For example, using fresh colours, more sustainable materials, and modern fonts can create a more contemporary look that better aligns with your space.
Poorly placed signs, or those that are dimly lit, are another red flag you should consider. For example, if visitors have to stop and pore closely over your signs in order to read directions, or end up missing them altogether, then your wayfinding system could be more of a hindrance than help. In this case, you may not need to replace the signs themselves, but it’s worth assessing your lighting and placement. If lighting is an issue, you could add LED backlighting for better visibility in darker areas, and improve readability by positioning signs at eye level, or in high traffic junctions to ensure they’re not missed.
At Image Technique, we offer a range of bespoke signage design solutions for businesses, public spaces, hospitals, universities, events venues and more. To find out more about how we can help, please contact us today by clicking here.
Image source: Canva