Sign Design UX Dos & Don’ts

Let’s set aside print production for a moment and examine wayfinding signage from the designer’s viewpoint.

Wayfinding refers to information systems that guide users through a physical environment and enhance their understanding of the space. User-experience (UX) design is the process design teams employ to create products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to end-users. 

UX generally is associated with the digital realm (think of websites and software). However, the Nielsen Norman Group consultancy notes that it encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with a company, its services and its products – including printed exterior/interior signage. Because negative UX can diminish product usage, improving the overall user experience is important to most companies, designers and creators.

Wayfinding signage is particularly important in complex-built environments, such as urban centers, health-care and educational campuses and transportation facilities, according to the Washington, DC-based Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD).

As architectural environments become more complicated, people need visual cues such as maps, directions and symbols to help guide them to their destinations. In these often high-stress environments, effective wayfinding systems can contribute to the overall UX: a sense of well-being, safety and security.

By way of example, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority is working to make Philadelphia’s rail-transit network more accessible and easier to navigate. The wayfinding project is led by Anna Crider, principal of NYC-based Entro Communications.

Philly’s Way

SEPTA’s existing signage is inconsistent and often difficult to understand. Through extensive research, Entro conducted station walk-throughs and engaged SEPTA riders through surveys, workshops and interviews. The design firm gained insight into the needs and perspectives of the diverse communities that use the system. To create a more intuitive transit experience, the Entro team started with the brand and extended its focus to the development of a clear and concise visual vocabulary and information hierarchy.

“In experiential graphic design, branding is often an integral component of place-making and identity projects, wayfinding, exhibition and even public installations,” said Cybelle Jones, SEGD’s chief executive. “It is the focus on an increasing number of strategy/research/planning initiatives, particularly as it relates to return on investment (ROI) for brand investments.

“While branding often develops as a separate effort, experiential graphic designers collaborate in branding either by developing the brand identity itself or supporting it through communications and experiences in the built environment. These are among the most powerful touchpoints for the brand.”

“Brand consistency definitely needs to be a part of any wayfinding effort,” said Curt Schultz, a seasoned designer in the Chicago suburbs. He has worked with clients ranging from trade groups, including the Water Quality Association, to state colleges, such as Northern Illinois University. However, he added that other design elements also should be considered, such as sign size, color contrast and so-called white space.

Graphically speaking, “if a sign features a ‘busy’ pattern in the background and has too much going on [visually], the message can get lost,” Schultz said.

In other words, don’t be too cute, because what looks good doesn’t always work well in the wayfinding world.

Inclusive Design for All

When the federal government gets involved, sign design can become hyper-functional.

“ADA [compliance] is inseparable from signage,” Jones said. “All signage must be accessible, and the understanding and interpretation of accessibility continues to evolve and be much more nuanced.”

“We have to ensure that our clients’ signage meets ADA compliance,” said Joel Gonzales, a 16-year veteran of the sign industry. “We advise them as to what is acceptable."

According to Gonzales, when creating signs for people who are blind or visually impaired, spacing becomes critical for printing braille and pictographs. Such specifications often are inspected in the field.

More recently, the ADA added digital-printing guidelines, including “the ‘proper way’ to add images to colored backgrounds,” Gonzales said.

Half of Gonzales’s career has been spent as associate design manager/technology consultant at ER2 Image Group, a full-service, grand-format printing firm in Hanover Park, Ill., a suburb situated some 34 miles west of Chicago.

“Some clients come to us with files in hand, while others have general templates that we lay out copy in," said Gary Schelleher, Jr., ER2 VP and partner. "Some lean on us to help determine appropriate copy.”

ER2 Image Group has six full-time designers on staff who “offer as much or little help depending on our clients’ needs,” Schelleher said.

The company, which employs 74 people, reported total sales of approximately $15 million in 2021. Two of its more recent sign jobs were executed for United Airlines and Uber Freight, the latter of which has set up shop in downtown Chicago’s iconic Old Main Post Office. Work for both big-name clients has included ADA elements.

ER2 prints braille signage in house on flatbed, UV LED printers from Direct Color Systems. To facilitate the tactile reading/writing system, the ultraviolet devices raise up typographic characters to an acceptable height that meet ADA standards. The manufacturer’s Direct Jet printers come bundled with typesetting software that translates into braille.

Before this advanced technology became available, the ensuing emulsion process was outsourced -- and could take from three to four weeks, according to Gonzales.

“Now we set up the file, pre-cut the media to size, and can be done by the end of the same day,” he said.

Inclusive Design in Practice at the Smithsonian

SEGD’s “Laws of Wayfinding”

Analysis Phase

• Consider the user group and type of space to determine signage scale, location, content, frequency and urgency of information. Ask questions such as, “Is it leisure (a museum or casual shopping), or is it an airport or a hospital?”
• Study the architectural flow of the building, group of buildings or site -- including vertical and horizontal transportation, entry and exit points, required access to other spaces, egress paths, etc. -- to help inform primary, secondary and sometimes tertiary decision points.
• Determine the total possible destinations for the wayfinding, and identify the permanent destinations as well as potentially changeable ones.

 Design Phase

• In general, less is almost always more.
• Design the signage to physically, visually integrate with the architecture/site wherever possible, whenever possible (unless the design intent is to contrast, to be bolder). 
• Keep refining the content and the design all the way through to design intent.