Wayfinding beyond signage: Rethinking the role of spatial objects and object relations

Wayfinding is one of the significant aspects to be considered in enhancing the quality of service and sustainable use of a public facility by its user. This study examines the role of objects in space in providing information for building users in the wayfinding process. The study was conducted by assigning some wayfinding tasks to some participants that are unfamiliar with the setting of the study. The method was through the walking-with observation and verbal protocols that indicate how the participants navigate in the building to find a particular location. The findings from the verbal protocols show that wayfinding strategies involved object-searching for finding cues regarding knowledge of position, location, route and place identification. The environmental objects other than signage and maps were also used and read as wayfinding cues. The different decisions made at particular points show how every object of cues relate to each other affecting the decision to be made and action to take. These findings suggest the needs to rethink the role of objects and object relations as the core of wayfinding strategies. Wayfinding design needs to incorporate the mechanism of object-searching and object relations, which will define the configuration of objects as a part of architectural spaces.