HOSPITAL WAYFINDING

Himanshu Garg
5th year

Elective submission

Abstract
This paper talks about the different approaches to wayfinding the guidance was
based on, and introduces new thinking including the concept of way showing.
Amongst the many visitors of the hospitals, most of them have temporary or
permanent disabilities and they demand to get to a specific destination in under time
pressure. It is undeniable to consider the importance of a readable, consistence
wayfinding system in the hospital.
This paper concludes that clear internal communication is essential for
wayfinding success and that hospitals needs to consider using new
technologies if a multi-sensory, the accessible wayfinding system is to be
achieved and nothing is more basics than maps.

Keywords
Hospital Wayfinding, Sign Design, Map Design, Wayshowing, Patient
Experience, Information Design, Inclusive Design, Pictograms

A country with its 25 languages, 1400 dialects, plus the high degree of illiteracy, the
gender divide, the religious and caste divide, has a major problem of communication
and the masses face tremendous difficulty and isolation, especially when they visit
places like hospitals and medical centers for treatment.
Inclusive wayfinding is still at a nascent stage in India. Various versions of
pictograms used in a system, known best to their creators, but not
understandable by the public. The pictograms developed in the western
world has their own inbuilt culture. Using them in a wide variety of
situations such a medical facilities in india, lead to cultural bias, excluding
a major part of the population from being able to understand these
wayfinding.
Every visitor who enters the hospital has its own level of knowing and different levels
call forth different needs. The first- time visitor who lacks experience, may not realize
the complexity and this can lead to great confusion.
The first challenge for any visitors is successful navigation of the medical
environment, to find their way around the facilities. Unfortunately, most hospitals and
medical centers are complex mazes of long and confusing corridor systems with
bends, turns, and foreign-sounding signs. Nothing looks familiar, and visitors, often
stressed by the demands of an illness, can find coping with confusing corridors
frustrating to say the least.
The problem is compounded by signs in languages they do not know, poor
design of signages, extremely poor execution of signs, improper, a
confusing or misleading sign symbol, as well as wrongly placed signs and
badly maintained signs. This lack of proper communication coupled with
the isolation as they do not know who to trust and thus who to ask,
increases their anxiety levels as they are lost and do not know where to
go, who to meet, who to ask etc. Anxieties leads to stress, which can
impact their health and/or make the person miss opportunities.
The research aims at the area of wayfinding and signage design with a
specific need and emphasis for a multi-cultural and diverse country like
India.