people viewing wayfinding map

Planning a Municipal Wayfinding System

Often overlooked, wayfinding is important for urban design, accessibility, and economic development. Learn the elements of a successful wayfinding system in this course.

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Course Info

  • Duration 11 video lessons (57 Mins)
  • Published Published
    2023
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Browse Course Chapters

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    1.
    Introduction
    Chapter Duration 5 mins
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    2.
    Scenarios
    Chapter Duration 3 mins
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    3.
    Elements of Wayfinding
    Chapter Duration 3 mins
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    4.
    Wayfinding Environments
    Chapter Duration 5 mins
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    5.
    Sympathy For The User
    Chapter Duration 9 mins
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    6.
    Analog Signs in a Digital Age
    Chapter Duration 3 mins
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    7.
    Brand Considerations
    Chapter Duration 5 mins
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    8.
    Consistency
    Chapter Duration 6 mins
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    9.
    Accessibility and Universality
    Chapter Duration 6 mins
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    10.
    Sign Typology
    Chapter Duration 5 mins
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    11.
    Closing
    Chapter Duration 3 mins

What You Will Learn

  • Understand what wayfinding is and who it is for.
  • Learn some reasons why a municipality might want to adopt a wayfinding system.
  • Acknowledge the various environments in which wayfinding is commonly adopted.
  • Know that signage is only part of the wayfinding puzzle.
  • Learn to sympathize with the user and follow principles of brevity & consistency.
  • Understand common accessibility and inclusivity considerations.
  • Know how to recognize common sign types employed in wayfinding.

Course Description

Wayfinding is the art and science of guiding people through public spaces. Roads and trails, parks and squares, campuses, transit terminals, hospitals, and airports are all places where people need help finding their way through unfamiliar environments. Often overlooked, wayfinding is important for urban design, accessibility, and economic development. Visitors want to know: What can I do in this place? Am I welcome? How do I find the destination I'm looking for?

Signage is one of the most common solutions, and Canadian planner Adam Fine takes you through all the considerations of planning a wayfinding signage system for municipalities, including functional requirements and user groups, message control, accessibility and universality, the design process, implementation, costs, and working with sign fabricators.

Learn these skills

  • Accessibility
  • Bicycle Planning
  • Communications & Media
  • Parks & Recreation
  • Pedestrian Planning
  • Transportation
  • Urban Design
  • Walkability
  • Writing

AICP CM

This course is approved for 1 AICP CM credit.

AIA CES

This course is 1 LU.

Meet Your Instructor

Adam Fine

Adam Fine

Adam is the Director of experiential graphic design at Nova Scotia-based Fathom Studio and has worked on interpretive and wayfinding plans for municipalities, trail groups, Parks Canada, provincial parks departments, and universities and college campuses.

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