Airport Wayfinding Principles-PART 1 Strategy is key!

VersionAbsolute Design Studio
Mar 7, 2024
2 min read

Airports are one of the most stress inducing places one can be in! One has to go through a series of processing points in a limited amount of time, often with no idea how much time each of those steps will take. In addition, the process complexities have become multi-fold with the introduction of online processes and prerequisites which vary from one airport operator, country to another.

Why do airports need to rethink their strategy for passenger wayfinding?

The navigational complexity has increased over the years with airports becoming larger.
More people than before, are flying, leading to many first-time flyers (FTF).
For many of these FTF, traditional wayfinding/navigation systems, such as signs and maps are not always be very easy to understand and can lead to confusion especially when they are rushing to catch their flight.
Increased visual stimulus from a plethora of advertising mediums add to the sense of being lost while navigating through the airport.
The world has changed post 9/11 and security measures and processes have increased/tightened leading to longer processing times which creates a sense of uncertainty in one estimation of time left to be able to catch one’s flight.
Confusing or sometime non-existent information on the city side creates a sense of panic even before one reaches the airport.
People’s expectations from an airport has changed from merely being a transportation space to also being a shopping & F&B space.
Airports are fast becoming a brand extension of the city/operator.

What would be some possible strategies one can explore to alleviate the situation?

Create a strategy to segregate primary secondary and tertiary information.
Use of high contrast color scheme, not in isolation, but in the current airport environment.
Re-look at the scale for some of the signs. Increasing size of some information can help reduce the need for multiple support signs.
Remove/reduce/selectively use information on signs. Remove redundancies and obvious information. Less is More!
As far as possible, de-clutter the existing environment so that one doesn’t have to search for the required information.
Extension of the existing primary addressing system that of entrance gates, check in counters and boarding gates into supporting processes and activities.
Addition of dynamic information systems to existing signs to display time & other related contextual dynamic information.
Process maps at strategic locations such as beginning and end of every process, for first-time flyers.