OUGD405
Study Task 01
Wayfinding Research

For the first study task of the new brief, we had to visit a selection of places such as museums and shopping centres to find examples of wayfinding, signage and pictograms in use in selected environments and how they function. 

Size?

The signage found in Size is a good example of it reaching out to its target audience, when you first walk in the store the bright neon lights instantly catch your attention, this enhances the experience but immediately informs you of the navigation of the space. Brand logos are seen on certain floors to inform the public of where the products are, this is an efficient way of wayfinding but may cause problems with an older audience who may be unaware of these brand logos.

The Henry Moore Institute

The wayfinding throughout the Henry Moore Institute is very consistent and clean. It sticks to a basic colour palette which is key to the design because it doesn't pinpoint any particular audience and serves its purpose. The way finding is most helpful as it enabled me to navigate around the gallery with ease, this is mainly down to it being the only type in the gallery, when I visited other galleries the walls were often crowded with text which made it difficult to lay the course of the building.

Leeds Art Gallery

The scale and design of the arrows in these signs are the most important aspect of the wayfinding, Leeds Art Gallery use a simple wayfinding system that guides easily. The use of a clean sans serif typeface adds to the simplicity, the actual size of the type is questionable but the size of the arrows are able to direct the user.