Effective wayfinding is paramount to the customer experience. Studies have shown that effective wayfinding has positive impacts on customer behavior but also reduces operational costs of staff time lost to directing and escorting facility guests. PSM²’s Wayfinding Planning has developed airport wayfinding standards that both improve the customer experience and sets protocol in place to allow an airport wayfinding system to evolve with airport growth.
A new airport building, or amenity is only as good as people’s ability to find it and utilize it. The onset of a Capital Improvement Program with various airport development often organically presents the dire need for reevaluation of an airport’s wayfinding system. Through our experience, PSM² can provide the management to conduct evaluations of an existing wayfinding system and standards. We have developed a tried and tested method that includes working with stakeholders, benchmarking airports, and understanding the uniqueness of each journey to ascertain wayfinding needs and challenges. Once developed and implemented these standards provide a blueprint for all development projects to build from for airport staff to maintain a uniform look and feel as operations and needs of the airport evolves. The evaluation conducted by our team will also identify the needed improvements and their urgency to existing wayfinding.
Development is not the only catalyst to the need for wayfinding improvements. If an airports customer experience is at a low due to frustrated passengers unable to effectively navigate an airport facility, a wayfinding evaluation and improvement plan will set the stage for successful changes to improve the customer service experience.
The examples below are just a few of the services PSM² offers as part of a Wayfinding Program. All our services can be tailored to fit an airport’s needs and customized to evolve with the airport.
- Assess Existing Wayfinding Conditions
- Conduct Stakeholder and Customer Surveys related to Wayfinding
- Identify Areas Needing Improvements
- Benchmark Similar Airports to Determine Best Practices
- Prioritize Wayfinding Improvement for Strategic Implementation
- Work with Development Projects to Implement Standards
- Work with Outside Agencies to Implement Interface and Continuity between the Wayfinding Systems
- Develop Protocol on How Existing Systems Expand
- Develop Wayfinding Standards Detailing
- Naming Structure and Standardized Terminology
- Use of Static and Digital Signage
- Nomenclature, Symbols and Hierarchy
- Placement and Locations
- Materials and Sign Types
- Color Specifications