Creating Effective Wayfinding Tools Requires Understanding of Spatial Cognition

Background; what does literature tell us?

Research divides wayfinding into “aided wayfinding” and “unaided wayfinding”. Aided wayfinding involves tools such as maps, where various cognitive processes are important, including symbol recognition, object rotation, self-localization, and aligning the map’s allo-centric view with the ego-centric perspective one experiences while navigating (Lobben, 2004).

In aided wayfinding, essential decision-making, memory, learning, and planning processes, which are necessary for unaided wayfinding, are externalized (Wiener, 2009). Familiarity with the environment influences strategy choices for directed wayfinding tasks (Holscher, 2006).

Spatial knowledge is categorized into at least three levels: destination knowledge, route knowledge, and survey knowledge (Siegel & White, 1975; Golledge, 1999; Wiener, 2009).

An interesting research question is how to effectively address spatial knowledge deficits to support wayfinding. Literature offers limited guidance on creating effective wayfinding tools. One hypothesis is that patients get lost in hospitals because we consistently develop ineffective tools.

Before we go deeper into this use case, let’s first look at a simpeler use case: finding your way in a retail store like a supermarket or DIY department store

Finding your Way in a Supermarket

To illustrate, consider wayfinding in a supermarket. This idea came after my usual supermarket completely remodeled its layout following six weeks of renovation.

Take this video below as an example—it looks impressive, right?

However, wayfinding tools should be more than just cool or visually appealing; they must be functional. Design and architecture are only meaningful when they are practical.

Breaking down the cognitive process of wayfinding in a supermarket

When grocery shopping, there are two main scenarios:

• You are unfamiliar with the supermarket.

• You know the layout of the supermarket.

If you are unfamiliar and looking for a jar of Greek yogurt, you lack destination knowledge, route knowledge, and survey knowledge.

However, you might guess that yogurt would be in the dairy section, contributing to survey knowledge, which is termed “informed search” (Ruddle, Payne, & Jones, 1999). It's similar to searching for a friend in a shopping mall; you know how to reach the mall but you don’t know where your friend is inside. With “uninformed search,” you lack any information—it could be anywhere. Imagine a firefighter searching for someone in a burning building without knowing their location.

In an unfamiliar supermarket, there is generally only “informed search.” If you do not know where the dairy section is, then it becomes “uninformed search.”

When creating tools to assist wayfinding and improve performance, the goal is to effectively compensate for a lack of spatial knowledge.

Three possible solutions are:

• Indicating the location of the target.

• Providing directions to reach the target.

• Offering a tool to enhance survey knowledge.

What happens in a supermarket when you try to find you way?

As a shopper you lack destination knowledge, but route knowledge is easy to compensate for once you have destination knowledge. Supermarkets, with their grid-like layouts, facilitate building survey knowledge quickly. Pathfinding is necessary to reach your destination, but once survey knowledge is established, path planning can begin. Path planning is a continuous process once you start moving, guided by layout knowledge. While this is generaly a cognitively complex task in an indoor enviroment, it is much easier in a grid layout. Once you know the destination, staying on course is straightforward.

Conclusion: what would be an effective solution?

The main wayfinding issue in a supermarket or department store is a lack of destination knowledge, not route or survey knowledge. Survey and route knowledge are easy to acquire, but destination knowledge is not—where exactly is that jar of Greek yogurt? Once you know this, navigating becomes simple. The core problem in supermarket scenario’s is product localization, not navigation.

A solution that simply helps you follow a route, like an AR wayfinding app or a Blue Dot navigation app, addresses a non-existent problem.

Instead, placing large QR codes throughout the store that link to a web-based system when scanned would be more effective. Shoppers could select their product from a catalog and be informed of its location, such as "F12," possibly shown on a small map. Put up signs labeling rows from A to R and numbers from 1 to 24, and you're set. This is similar to how IKEA's pick-up warehouses work.

And, best of all, there’s no need to download an app—because most people won’t do that for just finding their way around in an indoor environment.

So, first take a deeper look into the cognitive processes involved in unaided and aided wayfinding. Try to identify which spatial knowledge deficit can be most effectively compensated for. Only then will you be able to develop the most effective tools that maximize wayfinding performance.