News + Insight

28 March 2023

A smooth and seamless experience: wayfinding in airport environments

Airports can be stressful places. Busy, unfamiliar and very often time-pressured. As such, information, and the way it is communicated, becomes critical to the passenger experience. Through the deployment of carefully considered wayfinding strategies, design solutions can be created to encompass a range of decision-making processes, helping people to successfully navigate airport interiors. Wayfinding also supports solutions that not only make passenger journeys seamless and efficient, but fundamentally enjoyable.

An airport is a series of functional processes that convey passengers from their point of arrival to their point of departure. The spaces between key process points are opportunities for design interventions that can enhance the passenger journey. By making the functional processes as smooth and simple as possible, wayfinding will create time and space for passengers, enabling them to engage with the experiential elements of the airport environment.

The aviation industry has pioneered digital paperless travel. From the early adoption of

online ticket booking, to mobile phone apps to manage travel documents, aviation has led the way in technologies now commonly used by museums, concert halls and cultural venues. Using this technology, an air passenger’s journey begins – in every sense – a long way from their final destination. The ability to communicate with passengers with one voice, every step of the way, is therefore critical. Personalised and clear instructions, carried through to visual information, nomenclature, signage and maps, provides comfort and reassurance. And through consistent execution, from laptop to mobile, from train to tram to airport to terminal, wayfinding guides the passenger to their point of departure, where the next journey begins.

The user journey

As a time-driven process with a defined destination, the air passenger user journey depends upon planning. By knowing how long a journey will take, passengers can begin to understand how much time they have to ‘play and explore’ within an airport environment. This time can then be filled with diverting non-journey related activities: little moments of entertainment and joy derived from engaging interactions with retail, F&B and other uses designed to create memorable experiences.

As with all environments, airports attract users with varying degrees of competence and knowledge. Some passengers will have a natural sense of direction, a familiarity with airport processes, and a good memory for interior landmarks. Others will need navigational guidance, wayfinding cues, and practical support from check-in to departure.

Degrees of urgency will also vary. Time-poor passengers who need to get to their gate as quickly as possible will require precise and easily accessible information. Passengers with more time on their hands will need the same information, but will also want to know where they can go, and what they can see, do and experience, before they catch their flight.

Wayfinding, advertising and retail

The passenger journey should reveal itself progressively through an airport terminal. Architectural cues should announce each stage of the process, with wayfinding used to enhance the spaces passengers occupy and support the messages they receive. Within this process, visibility is key, giving passengers confidence to move to the next stage of their journey without hesitation or anxiety.

The interaction between wayfinding, retail and advertising is also critical, with each of these elements competing for passengers’ attention. In the wrong place, advertising can distract from the core process and lead to mistakes and frustrations – even to missed flights. But in the right place, at the right time, when passengers are relaxed and receptive, advertising can enhance the clarity of message and the overall user experience.

With so many elements vying for position, the creation of a hierarchy helps passengers to understand the space they’re in, showing them where to look for direction and information. This hierarchy should cover wayfinding, advertising and retail and integrate with the look and feel of the airport. It provides each element with a defined space, which in turn serves multiple functions; it reassures passengers, prevents any overlap of commercial and operational communications, and reduces visual clutter. Giving each element space to breathe, a carefully constructed hierarchy ultimately enhances the impact of received information.

It's also important to take a holistic approach to wayfinding, advertising and retail. Such an approach allows each element to take centre stage at an appropriate moment in the passenger journey, thereby enhancing commercial opportunities. Strict guidelines allow each element to speak in a clear and compelling way to passengers, while consistency of placement and presentation creates strong recognition and shortens the time required to process instructions.

Digital information

Digital information is a vital tool within airport wayfinding schemes. Display screens for check-in, flight times, baggage reclaim and onward travel deliver real-time, flexible information from fixed locations. And increasingly, mobile technology is reducing the need for paper tickets and boarding cards, enabling a smooth and seamless passenger experience. Mobile apps can also push gate notifications and updates direct to mobile phones, reducing the need for passengers to check for flight information.

As screen technology becomes cheaper and more accessible, the possibilities for digital increase. The ability to communicate real-time changes is hugely attractive to operators, while managing spaces with changeable messaging allows for a more agile use of fixed infrastructure.

The expansion of digital certainly presents exciting opportunities for wayfinding. But caution and balance are needed. Firstly, operators need to ensure there is an equivalent experience for non-digital users, or risk disenfranchising a segment of the passenger population. Secondly, operational issues need to be considered. For example, who generates and controls the flow of digital information, and what are the contingency plans for digital failure? Furthermore, rapidly expanding mobile technology, combined with increased process automation, reduces the opportunities for operators and airlines to interact with their customers. We therefore need to think about digital as an enhancement to wayfinding schemes, rather than a replacement, and to ensure the passenger experience is also supported by tangible physical dimensions.

What can wayfinding offer operators?

So, what ultimately can a considered wayfinding scheme do for an airport operator? A good wayfinding experience should go almost unnoticed, with passengers receiving the information they need without having to search for it. For frequent flyers, a seamless journey will influence their choice of airport, while occasional flyers will remember moments of distraction and delight. Informed, engaged and relaxed passengers are also more inclined to browse, with an enhanced passenger experience driving retail footfall, increasing dwell time, and stimulating consumption and transaction across the airport environment.

In this way, wayfinding can have both a commercial and creative impact on airport operations. If a passenger completes their journey achieving everything they need to do, finding everything they are looking for, in reasonable time, with minimal stress, they will leave with a positive memory of their experience. And these enhanced perceptions will generate repeat visits and deliver lasting, sustainable value for passengers and operators alike.