Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | about this site Rediscovering wayfinding (14 Jan 2001) Mr. Brandon had also been struck by the similarities between built and on-line environments. “They’re both 3-D and therefore many of the principles of wayfinding can also be applied to websites.” He explained that in airport design (Mr. Brandon has worked on wayfinding and signage for San Francisco Airport, which is excellent), one of the keys is to draw on a common, well-established vocabulary for travellers. He explained “If each airport invents its own terms, people get confused. This is becoming increasingly important as inter-modal transportation hubs come into being, combining, for example, rail and air travel.” The same problem of vocabulary carries over into websites as people take techniques and terms from one site and attempt to apply these to the next site they visit. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work since few universal conventions yet exist. Article URL: http://www.e-reiss.com/articles/rediscovering%20wayfinding.aspx Read 92 more articles from findability.org sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Usability -- The Irish Experience This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy