In every content, our M.O. at Placemarque is to help users find their way as easily as possible.
But in a healthcare context, this requirement is amplified tenfold.
Why is wayfinding so important for healthcare contexts, and what can be done to improve navigation?
Enhance user experience
Top of the list is improving user experience. Whether patient or visitor, someone accessing a hospital, surgery or other touch point is likely to be experiencing heightened emotions.
Wayfinding can be a powerful tool for helping reduce stress and anxiety levels in a healthcare context. That’s particularly important because the more complex a place – whether that is a transport interchange, retail or hospital – the more involved the planning, architecture and wayfinding requirements will need to be. And the more moving parts there are, the more careful and targeted the user experience should be.
Cut the complexity
A hospital is a classic example of a complex environment. With innumerable different departments and sub-departments in an unfamiliar environment, this is problematic for users who may, typically, be under more stress than usual.
A good healthcare wayfinding scheme streamlines movement, helping users get to where they need to be without overly complicated or overwhelming signs. For that, you need to understand the user’s journey and where they are headed.
Effective internal wayfinding schemes that present the right information in the right place can combat the understandable disorientation that happens in complex institutional buildings.
The important thing is to be logical and consistent with how destinations are both referenced and displayed, so the user can understand the hierarchy. This is particularly important in emergency situations.
Prioritise accessibility for all
An important value in every context, but particularly pertinent in healthcare facilities, it’s absolutely crucial to make sure that signage supports diverse needs of all abilities.
Not all disabilities are seen. Good design considers the needs and abilities of all users. Information design that is inclusive to people with dementia, for example, must distil the message down to its basic facts.
That’s easier said than done: a lot of work goes into designing for simplicity.
Designing for inclusivity doesn’t mean sacrificing good design. It’s the embodiment of good design.
Guy Warren, Design Director
Embrace technology
Integrating digital wayfinding solutions can inform, and therefore empower, users, helping to combat frustrations. An interactive kiosk might inform patients who the duty nurse is and how long they are running behind schedule. Or it might point a patient in the right direction when the consultant is ready to see them.
Combat complexity with common sense
Wayfinding is the art of understanding a complex set of user needs – beyond navigation – and devising the right solution to enhance placemaking. In all we do we keep user experience front of mind and seek out the simplest way to share information. But wayfinding in complex healthcare environments, in particular, requires a good dose of common sense.
Complex environments require expert intervention. Contact us to discuss how we can help bring clarity and common sense to the wayfinding at your healthcare project.
