Since the time immemorial, people around the world move from place to place on a regular basis. Having said that, we mean people have been on the move to meet the life’s challenges. For instance, job transfer from one city to another or from one country to another is a common sight today. In other words, it means people are often pushed to the new topography across the cities and countries. As a matter of fact, wayfinding signs have made an inroad to their everyday living. This has actually resulted in the evolution of these signs from time to time.
Key areas of the wayfinding signs:
- Eye catchy: The thumb rule for developing and using signs meant for the purpose of finding ways in a city/country is that the signs must always be eye catchy so that people in a rush and the newcomers can easily get attracted to them. Else, the purpose of these signs will be defeated. Having said that, we mean these signs must be able to attract people to it while walking or driving down roads in a car.
- Uniform lettering: Uniform lettering on the signs scores high on its’ readability. Therefore, all letters used on the signs must maintain a harmony. At the same time, those letters should also be big and bold enough to enhance the reading pleasure. In other words, the typeface of the letters used on signs plays an important role for the signs to succeed. The usual practice here is to follow the most common typeface that people can recognise easily. In the process, readability of the signs gets improved.
- Colour code: Colours of used on the signs also contribute to its’ success. For instance, black letters on the white base are distinctly visible to the people. But, different colours have different connotations. Therefore, letter colour and the base colour of the signs might be required to embrace some changes based on its’ specific application such as those at the factory setup, hospitals, and roads serving unique purposes.
- Choice of language: The importance of the language chosen for the signs here are often misunderstood. In many countries around the world, you will commonly find English as the medium there. But, this may grossly be erroneous given the average literacy rate of the people residing there. Hence, it is important to find the most talked language among the people residing at a place with a view to deciding the language to be given the priority over others for the signs.
- Strategic placement: Strategic placement of the signs is extremely crucial. Unless you have a strategy in mind before placing the wayfinding signs say at your workshop, the entire exercise and the purpose of putting up these signs will go in vain. Therefore, before you put up these signs at your business establishment, do check the strategic locations befitting the movement of traffic in an area.
- Frequency: Frequency of these signs must be maintained to ease the purpose.
However, there is no generic practice for the best wayfinding signs. Therefore, one has to choose the signs that best suit his purpose.