Directional guidance is key to fighting a lost cause

Signs can work to assist wayfinding if they are an integral part of our built environment and cater for the needs of people using a route, place, space or building.

We may hear, see or feel our way round using the senses we have available to us; if signs are designed and installed without consideration for this they can throw us off course rather than in the desired direction.

David Bernstein summed-up some wayfinding challenges precisely and humorously in his recent column (Private View, DW 2 August).

Guidance is available, to avoid some of the situations he illustrated, for those who are assigned to the task of commissioning, briefing, designing and installing sign systems. I have recently reviewed the Sign Design Guide by Peter Barker and June Fraser, produced by the Joint Mobility Unit and the Sign Design Society. It gives guidance commended as good practice at the Centre for Accessible Environments and I strongly recommend this as a point of reference.

Cassie Herschel-Shorland

Access consultant

Centre for Accessible Environments

cassie.herschel-shorland@cae.org.UK