A tool for signage placement recommendation in hospitals based on wayfinding metrics

It’s been very quiet on here recently, mostly due to a shift in research focus onto paper writing and editing rather than code based development. But new news this week is the publishing of my second journal paper in the Indoor and Built Environment journal. That gives 3 published papers entering the final year of the EngD, with one submitted for review at conference, one being drafted, and a final paper in the pipeline, so the output is healthy and on target for thesis completion in 2018.

A tool for signage placement recommendation in hospitals based on wayfinding metrics

Abstract

Navigating a healthcare facility can prove challenging to both new and existing patients and visitors. Poor or ineffective use of signage within the facility may enhance navigational difficulties. Signage strategies within facility design tend to be produced without consideration of how people typically navigate a space. Thus, strategies that ‘work on paper’ may not, in reality, aid or optimize patient and visitor wayfinding. Existing strategies for determining signage placement may also prove costly in terms of time spent on manual analysis of a facility’s floor space, including the potential for overlooking prime signage locations when analysing large floor plans. This paper presents a tool which aims to aid signage placement strategies by analysing facility design and routes within it, based on natural wayfinding metrics found in existing literature. The tool is designed to enable quick analysis of large designs for analysing multiple routes, highlighting areas where signage placement would aid natural wayfinding. The outputs of the tool are presented as a colour map which overlays the original 3D model design, highlighting the key areas where signage may be appropriate. An example of how the tool can be utilised to aid effective sign strategy is demonstrated on a small healthcare facility design.

Keywords

• People-centred design
• Wayfinding metrics
• Signage placement
• Computational analysis
• Hospital design

Authors

• Fraser L Greenroyd
• Dr. Rebecca Hayward
• Prof. Andrew Price
• Dr. Peter Demian
• Dr. Shrikant Sharma

Link to paper download

A tool for signage placement recommendation in hospitals based on wayfinding metrics

Example output of the tool traversing multiple floors of a hospital