Wayfinding Design: An Ergonomic Approach to Signage Systems

Signage systems are closely linked to the security of persons and goods, as well as pressing issues such as ergonomics, accessibility, orientation, and mobility, among others. Signaling traffic, tourism, emergency signaling, railway signaling, air, maritime, etc., well reflect the role of signage/signalization in contributing to the safety and mobility of societies and the social role of design as a methodology or discipline that conceives orientation signs in space – The Signage systems. The potential benefits of information design (more properly signage systems) for social development are also looking for new approaches and methodologies, for research in and by design in an attempt to maximize new solutions that improve the lives of societies. The found solutions at the level of signage systems do not always consider the real needs of multiple users, i.e., at the level of design of these systems lack truly design projects centred on the users and that incorporate real solutions at technical, aesthetic, ergonomic and also inclusive levels. The development of signalling systems, which are considered as spatial information systems, involves the vital function of transmitting information in order to guide and direct certain individuals or groups / classes of individuals. It is a communication process that uses artifacts designed for the transmission of information and guidance clear and unambiguous for Citizens: The wayfinding. Considering wayfinding as the organization and communication of our dynamic relationship with space and environment, we are in the field of an important area for the design, to architecture and ergonomics, which is not only limited to the design of systems, but all that pertains to human interaction with spaces (Arthur; Passini, 1992). Thus, wayfinding design seeks to develop activity in the design of signage systems and of spatial information, which aim to guide and assist the task of accessibility to a particular space or territory. It is understood to be fundamentally a user-centred approach, which favors the ergonomic issues, anthropometric and inclusiveness, making signage systems truly universal or rather, accessible to a majority.