WAYFINDING
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Common problems when untrained people give directions.
responses makes the data easy to analyse. Attractive visual graphs of the data can be used for easy communication of findings to executive decision makers and budget managers at your site.
Staff are critical to wayfinding success Many lost people look for someone to ask for directions, while many others will never ask for help and are reliant on your wayfinding information to guide them. Staff who look official wearing a uniform or seated behind a desk are most likely to be asked for help. These people need access to up-to-date wayfinding information, to be informed when site changes occur, and given training in giving simple, accurate directions. Eighty-six per cent of staff surveyed said they help someone every day for at least a minute. Conversely, 12 per cent said they never give directions because they are not sure where places are, and do not want to misdirect people. Common problems when untrained people give directions are: n Using outdated terminology, abbreviations, or names not used on signs e.g. “go past the old Outpatients, turn left at X-Ray, and SDEC is on the left” when the signs use other terms such as Ambulatory Care, Diagnostic Imaging, and Same Day Emergency Care.
Site maps.
n Giving overly complex directions (or too vague directions) when they struggle to create a mental map of your site layout and cannot describe key routes in simple ways. n Referring to indistinct landmarks that are not easy to recognise.
Getting lost affects patient satisfaction and experience Being sent in the wrong direction, walking further than necessary, and having to ask for directions multiple times frustrates service users, impacts patient experience and therefore satisfaction ratings, and causes people to be late. If people completely miss their appointment because they could not find the way, it impacts service efficiency, is stressful for staff who are trying to meet performance targets, and in some cases leads to anger and aggression towards staff. Patient Experience and PALS teams receive complaints, but if only a few people criticise signs and wayfinding, this does not mean you do not have problems! Many people do not know how to complain, cannot be bothered to find out who to contact, or are so grateful and relieved after their appointment that they forget about the wayfinding issues they experienced at your site. Online patient, visitor, carer, and family group consultations will help you identify key problems, and co-design workshops either in person or online will help you develop wayfinding solutions that reflect the concerns of your service users.
A tragic consequence of wayfinding failure In 2018, a 34-year-old new mother died when she got lost wayfinding from the neo-natal unit to the maternity ward in a large UK hospital. It took searchers over five hours to find her collapsed in a rarely used stairwell. Poor signage and a lack of physical barriers to stop unauthorised people using the stairs were found to be contributing factors to her death. A year earlier in a shopping centre in Sydney, Australia, a 71-year-old man from Tasmania mistakenly entered a rarely used stairwell and became trapped. It took 21 days to find him, by which time he was dead. Do you have any rarely used stairwells, building areas, or corridors that people could mistakenly access and lose their way? How quickly would you find them after they were reported missing? A different, potentially
tragic situation could arise in an emergency situation when staff with specialist life-saving skills need to urgently find a location at your site. If staff get lost, or fail to take the quickest route, there could be
40 Health Estate Journal October 2026
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