Wayfinding design often leaves out social interaction as part of its function, remaining an expression of direction, it does little to inform us of the nature of that destination. This essay will argue that if wayfinding is become an expression of community identity it must move away from its signage and architectural roots and consider social space as part of its brief. It will examine traditional methods of wayfinding, assess whether these methods are still relevant for today’s society, and question whether it can represent the cultural landscape of a city. It will then look at social media as an example of the sort of shift which traditional content delivery has undergone, before considering a series of examples that are relevant to the project. Finally, it will discuss likely directions and problems with specific regard to the project’s proposed goals. Firstly, it is important to distinguish the act of wayfinding, whereby we search for directions and orientate ourselves within a space, from the systems that are design to facilitate such an action. Per Mollerup puts it quite succinctly: “Wayshowing relates to wayfinding as writing relates to reading and as speaking relates to hearing. The purpose of wayshowing is to facilitate wayfinding.” 1Mollerup, Per from Wayshowing: A Guide To Environmental Signage Principles and Practice (Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers, 2005) This essay will refer to the terms ‘wayshowing’ or ‘wayfinding systems’ throughout, and the two are slightly different. While wayshowing may be as simple as giving directions on the street, wayfinding systems contain a level of designed intent.
Wayfinding springs up wherever it is not clear where we should travel, and becomes particularly important in large, metropolitan environments, where there are little obvious cues as to how to navigate a space. The near magical transport of elevators and underground rail networks (where travel occurs with a disorienting lack of reference to distance, orientation or location) creates an environment that makes it is necessary for experienced travellers to be able to quickly and easily gain their bearings. As a result, wayfinding has necessarily been a static medium—physical environments do not change that often—while its function is to broadly inform as many people as possible of their surroundings. This distance between the organic space and the signed space has come about through the traditional bonds between architecture and wayshowing—both have traditionally been about making statements upon the environment, a plane of intrusion upon ‘natural’ space, and are organised and deployed by those in positions of power.
“The architect is supposed to construct a signifying space wherein form is to function as signifier is to signified; the form, in other words, is supposed to enunciate or proclaim the function.” 2Lefebvre, Henri: ‘The Production of Space’ in Architecture Theory Since 1968, ed. K. Michael Hays. (Cambridge, Mass. and London: The MIT Press, 2000) It follows, then, that wayfinding systems are as much about guidance as control—where architectural space implicitly controls our actions, wayshowing is the explicit rendering of these implicit directions. If we accept architecture as a cultural pursuit, then surely information architecture, of which wayshowing is a subset, must hold a similar position—it is the graphic representation and interpretation of data. The possibility that this sort of information delivery can come to represent a culture was central to the initial explorations for the project. While graphic memes and tropes certainly form part of the cultural landscape, and these are certainly present within sign systems, more interesting is the way that this representation of space contributes to understandings of space. Secondly, the organisation of data often sits at a remove from its graphic interpretation—that this is referred to as the ‘strategy’ is important, for it will become the “functional framework for the system, explaining how it will provide information and directions for a place and how it will address user requirements.” 3Gibson, David in The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places (Princeton Architectural Press, New York: 2009)
This focus on usability before aesthetics has meant that a modernist, utilitarian aesthetic tends to dominate wayfinding systems, where the legibility of the signs is considered far more important than how they look. These systems are more than signs, and it is here that architecture comes into play again—Melbourne’s city grid works remarkably well as a system for finding one’s way around with minimal signage or mapping, relying instead on the artifice of the grid as a guide. As a result, most wayfinding within the built environment of the city is a layer placed on top of a previous, pedestrian focused system. It is in this manner that wayshowing forms an integral part of the urban environment, influencing not only the way we use space but the way in which it appears as well.
Here the static nature of wayshowing comes into play once again, and flies in the face of the migrational nature of the modern metropolis. Approximately one quarter of Australia’s population was born overseas 4Australian Bureau of Statistics: 2008 Year Book Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics: Canberra, 2008) Table 7.39, and Melbourne, like the rest of the country, has seen waves of immigration. Although this is reflected in the city’s architecture, culture and lifestyle, it does not flow into the wayfinding system, which maintains the facade of pure information. This policy of reduction that appears to exist within contemporary signage—the reduction of complexity—is useful for those who wish to find their way rapidly and with minimal assistance. Andrew Kuo is an artist and designer who works with information graphics, reducing complex moments in life to the simplified aesthetic popular within wayfinding and information architecture. In particular, Reviewed Text Message Reviews 5Kuo, A: Reviewed Text Message Reviews (digital illustration, 2008) in Fresh Dialogue Nine: In/Visible: Graphic Data Revealed (Princeton Architectural Press, New York: 2009) turns tiny moments of joy into rational and joyless information. To borrow from Marxist thinking on politics, an an-aesthetic stance is still an aesthetic. “The city’s cold heart is thus surrounded by the ebb and flow of Mediterranean life.” 6Crabbe, Chris W. in Beilharz and Hogan: Sociology: Place, Time & Division (Oxford University Press: Melbourne, 2006
Contributing to this cold heart is the fact that cities have become places that are “increasingly made up of dispersed, low-density developments; the plexus is dominated by an automobile-highway system that connects but simultaneously disconnects us.” 7Levinson & Krizek in Planning for Place and Plexus: Metropolitan Land Useand Transport (Routledge: New York, 2008) This dominance of the automobile only serves to reinforce the natural disinclination for members of the metropolis to interact 8Simmel, Georg; ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ in The Sociology of Georg Simmel (Free Press: Glencoe, Illinois, 1950)—cars cocoon us from having to engage with the broader community, creating a hermetically sealed environment that allows a break from social interruption. While this may well apply for those who dwell in the outer suburbs, the fact is that the inner city remains a cultural centre, and yet we find the same sign systems installed in both places. This repetition does not allow for differing interpretations of the space—the generalised directions for how to travel through such a space are key to our understanding of it, and to have these directions determined before we even set foot in the space leaves little room for personal exploration.
That wayfinding systems are so resistant to change is not surprising—they are static where culture is fluid, and represent the views of those with the power to have such systems built. “Environmental signs are generally commissioned by those in power. Rulers and owners use signs to inform and regulate society. Signs—as a rule—are signs of authority.” 9Mollerup, Per: Wayshowing: A Guide To Environmental Signage Principles & Practice (Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers, 2005) While the standards based design of sign systems attempts to be as inclusive as possible to those with disabilities, it does reinforce the cultural majority. More accurately, in attempting to represent everybody, it ends up representing no one. Is it possible, then, for a wayfinding system to become a form of cultural idenity?
Continued in part two.
Contributing to this cold heart is the fact that cities have become places that are “increasingly made up of dispersed, low-density developments; the plexus is dominated by an automobile-highway system that connects but simultaneously disconnects us.” 7Levinson & Krizek in Planning for Place and Plexus: Metropolitan Land Useand Transport (Routledge: New York, 2008) This dominance of the automobile only serves to reinforce the natural disinclination for members of the metropolis to interact 8Simmel, Georg; ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’ in The Sociology of Georg Simmel (Free Press: Glencoe, Illinois, 1950)—cars cocoon us from having to engage with the broader community, creating a hermetically sealed environment that allows a break from social interruption. While this may well apply for those who dwell in the outer suburbs, the fact is that the inner city remains a cultural centre, and yet we find the same sign systems installed in both places. This repetition does not allow for differing interpretations of the space—the generalised directions for how to travel through such a space are key to our understanding of it, and to have these directions determined before we even set foot in the space leaves little room for personal exploration.
That wayfinding systems are so resistant to change is not surprising—they are static where culture is fluid, and represent the views of those with the power to have such systems built. “Environmental signs are generally commissioned by those in power. Rulers and owners use signs to inform and regulate society. Signs—as a rule—are signs of authority.” 9Mollerup, Per: Wayshowing: A Guide To Environmental Signage Principles & Practice (Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers, 2005) While the standards based design of sign systems attempts to be as inclusive as possible to those with disabilities, it does reinforce the cultural majority. More accurately, in attempting to represent everybody, it ends up representing no one. Is it possible, then, for a wayfinding system to become a form of cultural idenity?
Continued in part two.
