By: Rebecca Casey
Navigating our way to and through medical facilities, while not the primary focus of a healthcare visit, has an outsize influence on people’s experiences. If the journey falls short and adds stress, confusion or uncertainty, there are real costs to patient and staff well-being, even trickling down to operational costs and patient satisfaction ratings.
Wayfinding is the term for how we use surroundings to find our way. In the built environment, and by working in an organization, decisions are made on what information to provide in support of that process. Typical tools include signage; graphics; tactic, audible and spatial architectural details and digital cues. To be effective and reduce anxiety and risk, we must inform those decisions with an understanding of how different people perceive the cues and information available to guide them.
For healthcare organizations in particular, this process must start before arrival at a facility. There are implications to the terminology used in appointment reminders compared to signage and staff language, such as a “X-ray” appointment translating to finding “imaging” or “radiology” within a building. One extreme example of a wayfinding shortcoming, where a woman died due to a lack of signage and visual cues outside a hospital, resulted in Massachusetts’ Laura’s Law.1
While healthcare organizations have limited control over people getting to the location, once patients, visitors and staff arrive at the facility, design is key for guiding them safely. If people arrive at their destination frustrated and anxious, everyone suffers. Layering wayfinding clarity with wellness-supporting features into the journey can significantly reduce that stress. To highlight examples of opportunities along the way, consider the following:
Photographer: Ryan Bent
Orientation: Determining location in relation to surroundings
- For many, this begins online and before arriving at the site. Consistent terminology and universal language including visual symbols, braille, auditory options and translations are all ways to increase access.
- Landmarks can be orienting at any point in a journey, and best used at decision points. While some people navigate well by map, some people only understand their position experientially. Successful landmarks can be art installations, points of interaction like reception desks, areas with unique themes and/or color schemes or other highly visible features. Ideally, these will be directional to help identify positioning in relation to the landmark and consistent at all levels of a building, including elevators and stairwells, versus changing from floor to floor or by treatment area.
- A landmark can center around size and shaping of space rather than an object, including places to pause like atriums, or even alcoves or windows. These can be memorable and directional, while also providing the option to step out of traffic flow or take a moment to look out at nature (which has been proven to significantly benefit cognition and reduce stress).
- Reinforcing use of landmarks and much more, the Q4 2024 update to The WELL Building Standard2 beta tests “Inclusive Interior Navigation and Inclusive Building & Neighborhood Wayfinding” features in support of neurodiverse building occupants. While this aligns with the previously discussed features, it also provides guidance on key color contrast relationships and encourages consistency of planning for amenities, support areas and specialty destinations from floor to floor.
Photographer: Sandy Agrafiotis
Routine decision and monitoring: Direct people to the simplest and preferably shortest route to their destination and then support them in confirming they are both on the right path and gauging progress along their journey
- When you receive driving directions from a GPS, there is an overview, but the route is also broken down into step-by-step moves. While ideally the path to a patient’s destination is not as complex as the drive to get there, the nature of many hospitals is that the layout has grown over time and may no longer be the simple diagram it was initially designed to be. Much like driving instructions, a building must also provide information along the journey to affirm one’s progress and cue up the next decision-making point along the path to each destination.
- Critical to this is reinforcing the information while avoiding overuse of signage or creating a busy or overwhelming quantity of indicators, which can begin to distract from each other and cause confusion.
Destination recognition
- You made it (phew!). Arriving at the destination generally means that a patient can check in and know they will be cared for, and someone will let him/her know when and where to go. Providing elements of a clear identity, familiar design and consistent messaging guides and provides a sense of place outside of through-traffic — reinforcing the sense of arrival and easing the need to be on high alert.
Rethinking wayfinding by layering wellness-supporting features into a patient’s physical journey can help reduce stress, eliminate frustration and create a calming atmosphere. In order for patients, families and guests to successfully navigate emergencies, appointments, visiting hours or even volunteering, facilities should strive to provide an intuitive path to all destinations using a robust combination of effective design strategies.
1 https://www.boston.com/news/politics/2021/01/06/lauras-law-passes-massachusetts-legislature/
2 https://resources.wellcertified.com/articles/q4-2024-addenda/
Rebecca Casey, AIA, WELL AP, is principal/architect, Health + Wellness Practice at SMRT Architects and Engineers.
