Research: Wayfinding

Notes made from Universal Principles of Design by William Lidwell, Kritina Holden, Jill Butler

Wayfinding:
The process of using spatial and environmental information to navigate to a destination. It involves 4 stages: orientation, route decision, route monitoring, and destination recognition.

Orientation:
- determining one's relative location
- to improve, divide space into distinct small unique parts, using landmarks and signage
- landmarks = orientation cues and identification
- signage is a power tool

Route Decision:
- choosing a route or path to get to the destination
- minimize navigational choices, provide signs or prompts at decision points
- people like shortest route (even if complicated). indicated shortest route.
- maps are best for spaces that are very large, complex, or poorly designed
- may need to be adaptive (ie. stressful scenarios such as a fire escape)

Route Monitoring:
- monitoring the route to confirm that it is leading to the destination
- connect locations with paths that have clear beginning, middles, and ends
- progress should be easily gaugable using clear lines of sight to the next location, or signs indicating a relative location
- for long paths (or delays due to traffic) consider adding visual lures such as pictures to pull people through
- breadcrumbs - visual cues highlighting the path taken, can aid route monitoring, especially when a mistake is made (for backtracking)

Destination Recognition:
- recognizing a destination
- enclose destinations such that they form dead-ends, or barriers to disrupt the flow of movement through the space. Give destinations clear and consistent identities.

Other factors that are related to Wayfinding:

Mental Model:
People understand and interact with systems and environments based on mental representations developed from experience. When the imagined and real outcomes correspond, a mental model is accurate and complete. Two basic types: System models, for how the system works and Interaction Models for how people interact with the system.

Progressive Disclosure:
A strategy for managing information complexity in which only necessary or requested information is displayed at any given time. Primarily used to prevent info overload. Keeps displays clean and uncluttered. Battle confusion, frustration, and disorganization.