In wayfinding, it’s important to understand both physical and informational environments
Which interaction would you choose?
Scenario 1
You’re not feeling well: nauseated, a bit dizzy, blurred vision and an occasional headache. So you make an appointment with your family doctor. When he asks about your symptoms you share the details, telling him you worry that this might be brain cancer. He takes your word for it, schedules an MRI and refers you directly to a brain surgeon.
Scenario 2
You’re not feeling well. You make an appointment with your primary care physician, and once you sit down with her, she asks about your symptoms. You share the details, telling her you worry that this might be some form of brain cancer. She asks a few more questions about how the symptoms began, gives you a quick exam, then tells you you’re dehydrated and prescribes Gatorade and a good nights sleep.
Now this is surely not brain surgery. Most would obviously choose the interaction in the Scenario 2. And yet, in the world of wayfinding for healthcare environments, we often find that clients approach a consultant expecting that they’ll respond like the doctor in Scenario 1. In fact, they may have become even more convinced of the worst-case scenario by:
Working hard to build a Request for Proposal that details the very problem they’ve diagnosed for themselves.
Looking for vendors who will do both the MRI and the brain surgery, choosing the one who can demonstrate they’ve done the same work on someone that looks just like them.
Mandating the work go to the lowest bidder, or
Even worse, choosing the firm that built the MRI machine (e.g. a sign company) to do it all.
We’re exaggerating a bit, but we’ve shared these scenarios to illustrate a point: as consultants that care about your outcomes, we will not take on a wayfinding project without first doing an initial assessment. Like the doc in Scenario 2, it may take a little bit longer to understand the decisions that led you to your current status; we may need to do a quick physical review of your facility and interview people to gain a clearer understanding of the challenges they face. Only by doing this can we give you an accurate assessment of how we might help truly resolve the problem. In the long run, the up-front investment can pay off exponentially in ROI.
Our scenarios illustrate two aspects to your physical health that a doctor needs to know: 1) the clinical reasons for the current condition, and 2) aspects of your lifestyle that may have caused the condition. Similarly, we need to look closely at two aspects of your wayfinding challenge: informational and physical.
What people KNOW is more important than what they SEE.
Informational
We may very well find that empowering staff and patients with information in advance can resolve many of the physical wayfinding issues, often at a much lower cost, with more successful outcomes.
By reviewing all forms of communication across the entire experience, we can build a plan that supports all of the ways that your guests choose to navigate, an that your staff must use to support and inform their experiences.
Working with our clients in an iterative process, we learn about internal constraints and opportunities while at the same time understanding the “levers” within the culture that determine how things get done. Only then can we design a process to navigate these opportunities in sustainable ways.
Physical
The physical environment can be a barrier to wayfinding. Anyone who's ever gone to a complex hospital campus can attest to how confusing and frustrating the experience can be. By taking time to walk the facility with the client team, we use our experienced eyes (and the input of people we meet) to see the things that our clients typically miss.
We’re not saying it’s anyone’s fault. This is mainly because they have “problem blindness,” the fact that familiarity with the facility means they walk by the problem every day, never realizing its impact. This always leads to multiple a-ha moments - “why do we use that word?” or “OMG I never realized that was there!”
The review of the physical environment also includes standard aspects of the work of wayfinding: form, color, scale, materials, reflecting the brand in the architecture, and a study of the existing installed base of other informational elements: digital tools, printed information, static signage, etc.
Through site tours, observations and team meetings, we develop a customized action plan to improve both the spaces you occupy and your staff effectiveness in delivering the wayfinding experience. This initial process of discovery results in multiple low cost, high impact ways to improve communications with your audiences.
We understand that this might go beyond the scope our clients anticipate for the initial project, and we certainly understand the new reality of cost constraints brought on by COVID. But we also know that wayfinding signage alone may solve a short-term problem, but will not fully address the underlying condition. We help our clients to be effective stewards of the resources they have, testing to prove the value of wayfinding tools before expensive long-term investments are made.
The Details
So let’s get to the question you might be asking: what does it cost to do this initial assessment? Of course, we can’t say for sure without understanding more about the size of your facilities and the scale of the problem, but of course this all begins with a conversation. The assessment phase includes the following:
Research: In advance of a site visit, we schedule multiple opportunities to meet virtually with representatives from across the organization to understand the issues you face in terms of terminology, connectivity and the tools you use to deliver wayfinding. These cross-functional calls allow many voices to be heard and stories to be shared - safely, at a distance.
Days on site for “boots on the ground” research (typically 3 to 5):
Observe patient and staff behaviors, interviewing individuals to understand workarounds that they may have designed for lack of a better system.
Meet with leaders across disciplines to assess the “interoperability” of the current wayfinding system, physically and informationally.
We talk with both staff and patients to understand what challenges they’ve faced; often this information is shared openly in the moment because we are neutral facilitators, and are there to actually solve the problems they’ve experienced or seen.
We designate one or two problematic routes to which we might apply new wayfinding logic and tools.
Schedule meetings with internal patient advocacy groups such as Patient Family Advisory Councils, even individual patients if this can be arranged.
Photograph the environment and building a data set for further study.
Final assessment review:
A comprehensive needs assessment that includes potential terminology and tools as part of an initial testing phase;
A photograph-driven narrative of proposed sign types to prototype along a designated route, and a process for design, specification and fabrication of the prototype test, and
A process for touring the facility and receiving feedback from patients, visitors, volunteers and staff once prototypes are built and installed.
Summary
There is no silver bullet for wayfinding. Signage alone cannot solve the problems of unfortunate architectural realities, and the latest digital technology is an expensive diversion if not handled as part of a system-aware wayfinding strategy.
By listening carefully, building trust and uncovering your hidden assets, we can strengthen your facilities, systems, people and culture to catalyze sustainable change from within for greater experience impact. An empowered staff member or volunteer understands the behaviors and tools that work together to deliver an experience. An empowered patient comes to you confident, stress-free and ready to address their primary concern: the health issue at hand.
