Every Wayfinding signage project is individual to the business, the target audience, and the technology utilized. In order to have a successful wayfinding strategy, you must first assess the need, collect assets, and map the appropriate locations. From this point, you can start to design the plan, build it, and then continually test it until it is ready to implement. 

To help you get your wayfinding strategy right the first time around, here are helpful tips for making your wayfinding plan stand out and ensure it is effective in 2019. 

1. Recognize why wayfinding design is crucial for you. 

When it comes to signage for businesses, there are a variety of ways that they can be utilized. Wayfinding Signage, for example, is much more than merely directional signage. However, at its core, it is essential to aid your visitors in navigating your building or for guiding them where they need to go. For this reason alone, high-quality wayfinding design is critical for environments like hotels, airports, hospitals, and other public spaces. 

That being said, wayfinding design is also essential for other kinds of buildings and spaces. For example, a large office building or an open-air shopping center generally can be confusing for visitors to navigate. A well-planned wayfinding system decreases the stress that individuals may experience when attempting to navigate the area. 

You know your space better than anyone, so it is up to you to recognize why wayfinding design is crucial for you specifically. If you are struggling, consider speaking with a wayfinding and signage company in Dubai that can help you envision what wayfinding design can do for you. 

2. Connect your wayfinding design with your brand identity. 

In addition to aiding visitors and customers with where to go, wayfinding signage can also play a significant part in forming (and enhancing) your brand identity. The goal is that when an individual sees your signs, they immediately comprehend what brand the signs refer to. Injecting your branding into your wayfinding signage will work to deepen the connection between your business and your customers. 

Including part of your firm’s unique personality into the signs will ensure that your wayfinding efforts are not only accommodating but also memorable. Look to use different shapes and colors, as well as get creative with your placement. For example, you could look for ways to incorporate your wayfinding signage into your interior design. It is an extra step, but the details matter when it comes to providing the best experience possible. 

Taking steps to brand your signs produces a distinctive, more enjoyable experience for your clients, customers, and visitors. After all, the better the experience you provide, the higher the chance that people are going to want to return. 

3. Prioritize creating organic customer engagement. 

While wayfinding signage is primarily designed for navigation, it is also a strategy for creating organic customer engagement. With a well-thought-out wayfinding strategy, you are escorting potential customers through your space and showing them how best to interact and navigate the physical part of your firm. When looked at in this way, it becomes clear that wayfinding allows you to assemble a real-world version of a customer funnel. Just as with other sales funnels, make sure that your wayfinding one is designed to convert cold leads into paying customers. 

As a brand, if you focus on generating better customer engagement, then you will, in turn, improve sales and obtain more loyal customers. Take, for example, the Swedish retailer H&M who is continually performing several innovative deployments of wayfinding design and digital signage. Despite having a well-known global brand, H&M recognizes the power of wayfinding and digital signage to enhance their customer engagement. 

4. Look to meet (or surpass) shoppers’ expectations. 

When it comes to the design of your wayfinding signs, no matter what you do, you have to remember that clarity is essential. While you can (and should) utilize wayfinding signs to demonstrate your brand’s identity, you also want to make navigation as easy as possible. This is why conventional standards and basic symbols, images, and terminology are ordinarily suggested. 

Additionally, always be consistent with the size and height of your signs. While they may seem like a good idea at first, never use fancy fonts, as they tend to go out of style quicker than you want to replace the signs. 

Furthermore, the placement of your wayfinding signage should be intuitive. This will require you to get inside a visitor’s head. Throughout the wayfinding signage design process, continually have different people doing a walkthrough of the space and imagining themselves as a guest. While you are role-playing, think about which areas, amenities, and the like are challenging to find, then ensure your wayfinding signs respond accordingly. 

The degree to which your wayfinding communication is read and remembered is related to its length. In other words, if your wayfinding message is too long, then it is going to be ignored or tuned out. Therefore, instead of striving to serve your visitors the whole “loaf,” utilize the breadcrumb method. This necessitates several signs positioned strategically along the necessary route, each comprising a concise message or simple visual for visitors to take in. 

5. Consider the floor plan. 

If you are looking to create a wayfinding signage strategy for a store, you want to be paying close attention to the actual floor plan. Most stores are laid out in one of two ways: grid floor plans (commonly seen in most grocery stores, convenience stores and big box stores) and loop floor plans (common in specialty retail stores). Both layouts are efficient, straightforward, and familiar to shoppers. Unfortunately, too many stores struggle to implement their wayfinding signs into their floor plans appropriately. 

If you have too many signs, then your store is going to look too cluttered and overwhelming. If your signs aren’t positioned thoughtfully, customers are going to get frustrated and leave. In a loop floor plan, you need fewer signs as a shopper cannot get lost. Therefore, you should focus more on point-of-sale and promotional displays. 

In a grid floor plan, wayfinding should be at the end of aisles and concentrated on either divisions or leading the shopper back to the cash register. “Free flow” floor plans are becoming more common in upscale and boutique settings; however, these are not business models that concentrate on high-volume traffic.

6. Functions should correspond with the color and design elements. 

When adding wayfinding signage to your firm’s physical location, you want to ensure that it feels organic to the space. This means considering aspects such as whether or not the signs match the colors of the surrounding area and if the maps you provide seamlessly integrate with the walls. In other words, when your wayfinding blends with the encompassing surroundings, it formulates an organic feel that naturally drives customer engagement.

No matter what industry you are in, or the size and space of your physical presence, the color selection of your wayfinding signage is extremely valuable. It is through your choice of colors that you can elicit particular emotions from the visitors who are engaging with the wayfinding. 

For example, if your company wants to be affiliated with risk-taking and boldness, then red is the color to be used in your wayfinding. Alternatively, if your business values being in tune with the planet, then green should undoubtedly be in your wayfinding as it is associated with nature and health.

As you can see, wayfinding signage is both a practical and affordable form of advertisement. More than just that, it is also an essential part of helping your clients and customers navigate your firm’s physical presence. By choosing to work with the best wayfinding company in the UAE, you can ensure that you are enhancing every visitor’s experience. The professionals will aid you in attaching your wayfinding strategy to your brand identity and designing an impression that enables you to stand out.

Does your company currently use wayfinding signage? Why or why not? Let us know your thoughts and any relevant experiences in the comments below!