Wayfinding as Customer Experience
Insights from crowdsourced metrics
By Andrew Ngui
What is Wayfinding?
Simply put, Wayfinding is a systematic display of information that helps people get to their destinations. Just like a fish doesn’t know its in water, a good wayfinding system is invisible, until one loses their way.
The challenge is to help people seamlessly connect the dots and navigate through our increasingly complex urban jungles, underground shopping centres and public transit.
Transforming Wayfinding as Customer Experience
Redefining wayfinding as a core component of customer experience is important because this refocuses the energies of the design team back to where it’s required most; meeting the needs of the customer instead of code compliance.
“If you can’t measure it, you can’t change it.” –Peter Drucker
Crowd sourced data analysis can be implemented as a pilot initiative by utilizing existing tools that are currently used to measure customer satisfaction such as information requests, surveys, contests, social media and others.
As more intelligent buildings are launched, on-site sensors can help to fine tune the existing metrics used by providing a greater detail of data for analysis. Depending on available resources and requirements, smartphone apps may present opportunities to aggregate metrics as well as hint to branded experiences.
Redefining wayfinding as customer experience is just the start. By working from the end goal of creating positive experiences, this promotes the adoption of customer focused design as a priority. Perhaps this might be the best strategy in preparing for future advancements in wayfinding design today.
Wayfinding Case Study Video
Royal Childrens Hospital Melbourne — Büro North
Toronto PATH Shopping Guide Map
The Importance of Wayfinding to the Customer Experience — Tyler Burgess
Wayfinding & Customer Experience — Sean Van Tyne
