The Wayfinding

What is Wayfinding?
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Wayfinding is the primary component of Environmental Graphic Design (EGD). EGD can be
defined as the graphic communication of information in the built environment. This discipline
embraces a variety of design practices including urban design, landscape architecture,
architecture, interior, product and graphic design.

In spite of its frequent use in EGD, the term Wayfinding is considered as misspelled in different
spell check software and does not appear in most dictionaries. By looking at word origins, it is
possible to see the evolution of its meaning through four different time periods, which help to
locate its contemporary usage.

1. The term wayfaring was introduced in the 16th century as traveling or journeying by road.
Therefore a wayfarer is a person who travels by road, especially on foot 1.

2. In 1960, the urban planner Kevin A. Lynch coined the term way-finding in his influential
book Image of the City. He defined it as a consistent use and organization of definite
sensory cues from the external environment 2. His work was based on the concept of
spatial orientation and its prerequisite, cognitive maps. The former relates to ways in which
a persons ability determines his location in a setting and the latter refers to an overall
mental image or representation of the physical space and its layout.

3. In the early 70s an important conceptual shift occurred. Cognitivists argued that one has to
understand the underlying processes in order to interpret how people find their way.
Therefore, the relevant concept was no longer based on spatial orientation alone, but on the
processes that incorporate perception, cognition and decision-making. This new concept
gave birth to the term wayfinding. This idea reflected a different approach to study peoples
movement and their relationship to the physical space. Cognitivists presented it as a spatial
problem-solving method that linked three interconnected processes. The first one, decision-
making is the development of a plan of action. The second, decision executing, transforms
this plan into appropriate behaviors and actions. And finally, information processing is
responsible for the information basis of the two decision-related processes.

4. In 1984 in his book Wayfinding in Architecture, environmental psychologist Romedi Passini

extended the concept of the term by relating it to architecture and signage.

Signage is now considered by EGD to be the most important means to communicate wayfinding
information about physical spaces. Signs convey meaningful messages that help people make and
execute decisions in their environment. Signs can be divided into seven categories 3:
 Identification signs identify a destination, place or environment.
Directional signs direct people to various destinations within an environment.
Warning signs alert people of source of danger or safety procedures within an
environment.
Regulatory & prohibitory signs regulate peoples behavior or prohibit certain activities
within an environment.
Operational signs inform people about an environments use and operations.
Honorific signs confer honor on people associated with an environment.
Interpretive signs help people interpret the meaning of an environment by providing
information on its history, geography, inhabitants, artifacts, and more.

Environmental Graphic Design is a relatively new field of design practice. Even though this type
of communication has always existed, the subject discipline itself has recently gained recognition
and importance over the past 30 years. The terms environmental graphics, signage, and wayfinding
were barely used a couple decades ago. The word signage, for instance, only appeared in American
dictionaries in the 1980s. The recent awareness of these terms reflects the disciplines activities,
which are largely still seen as afterthoughts. Paul Arthur, wayfinding planner, and Romedi Passini,
architect and environmental psychologist, describe the accessory nature of signage in relation to
the roles of architects and graphic designers 4.

The roles that are currently fulfilled by architects and graphic designers are still hostages to the
status quo to that outworn but still prevailing notion that architects design buildings, while
graphic designers come along at the end of the building process and install some signs, and
that the public is somehow helped by this.

Notes
1 New Oxford American Dictionary, 2001.
2 Kevin Lynch. The Image of the City. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1960.
3 Calori, Signage and Wayfinding Design, 71-15.
4 Paul Arthur and Romedi Passini. Wayfinding: People, Signs, and Architecture.

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