While getting from one area to another in a familiar facility is intuitive, it's not always obvious to visitors. Frequently, they need guidance on the campus, through a hospital, or industrial park.

Wayfinding
Wayfinding is the presentation of structured information needed to allow users to navigate an environment or seek a particular destination. It is especially important to visitors new to the building or campus.

While some facilities managers believe that signs with directional arrows might be adequate to guide visitors, professionals in the field of visual communications disagree. Wayfinding is more than just signage or a laundry list of destinations. It's about shaping the environment and progressively revealing the spaces through which visitors navigate.

Wayfinding is a holistic system developed through an understanding of human cognition-how people think, process, and make decisions. In addition to signage, identification elements include the organization of space into functional nodes or zones, the grouping of directional information in logical layers, the use of flooring materials such as carpeting or tile, and the choice of wall coverings and paint.

Whether visitors to the facility are students or some other clientele, how easily they get around affects their first and final impressions of the facility. Because of the effect it has on customers, wayfinding's focus should be on creating a system which is easy to navigate and presents the most positive impression possible.

Working Together
The choices made by the facility manager and marketing department should be expressions of brand messages that marketing has developed. Brand is the promise made to visitors that must be kept consistently while they have contact with an organization, especially while they visit.

The marketing department, therefore, has a vested interest in the design and implementation of wayfinding systems. Brand identity must be assured and cannot be undercut by physical elements that specifically contradict brand messages.

For instance, it would not be appropriate for a pediatric hospital with a friendly brand identity to have an authoritarian atmosphere. Engraved metal plaques listing physicians or marble corridors leading to high mahogany admissions desks would undermine the brand identity.

A better choice would be hallways marked with bright, primary colors to guide visitors to the proper areas. Some signs positioned on a child's eye level and thickly padded carpeting in waiting rooms would support the brand message rather than dilute it.

For a facility manager who has been charged with developing a new or revised wayfinding system, the best route to take is side by side with the marketing department. By including marketing in the decision making process, it is easy to retain brand identity.

There may be occasional conflicts. Facility managers and marketing department staff may not always see eye to eye because of their differing perspectives. On the one hand, marketing personnel deal with the intangible, emotional aspects of the brand. On the other, facility managers deal with the tangible-brick, mortar, roofs, and carpets.

A facility manager may not consider brand on a day to day basis like the marketing department, but that does not mean it should be neglected. The focus may instead be on the needs of the employee and visitor: comfort, safety, or entertainment. Marketing focuses on the overall experience.

Real Life Cooperation
A balance can be reached. For instance, when it came time to renovate a wayfinding system for the campus shared by Lorain County Community College and the Great Lakes Technology Park, compromise was essential. The facility manager-who was an architect with concerns about aesthetics as well as functionality-worked closely with the marketing department to consider a system that effectively reflected the college's brand.

One concern of the marketing department was to foster a sense of community and welcome for those who visited. Meanwhile, the facility manager was concerned about the flow of traffic onto campus. This concern was addressed with freestanding brick signage with layered directive information to keep vehicular traffic to the community centers travelling on the right path.

Both the facility manager and the marketing team agreed that a positive experience for campus visitors was vital. Functionality was enhanced by color coding areas which differentiated the college from the technology park and the park from the community service buildings. College brand elements were included as well. The colors selected for the wayfinding system were specifically chosen because they matched the school colors.

A collaboration between two groups with little in common can be difficult. But if facility managers and marketing staff understand both points of view and cooperate, the result will be a wayfinding system which will please both parties. By being conscious of the brand and the needs of the facility, the marketing department and facility management will leave visitors with a positive impression of the organization.