By its very nature creating wayfinding signage is a relatively complex task—a task that becomes more complicated as the size of the facility increases. The designer, working in concert with the sign manufacturer, is required to put themselves in the shoes of a visitor and answer directional and informational questions that visitors will have when they arrive for the first time.

Developing and implementing a wayfinding program would be much easier if visitors to a given facility were typical, but that’s simply not reality. These days, designers have to account for multiple languages and a range of literacy abilities, particularly in settings like hospitals. That’s one of the reasons dynamic digital signage promises to fully bridge that potential gap.

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“Limited English Proficiency is a buzzword in the healthcare field, which not only addresses multi-lingual issues, but it also means reaching someone who’s not terribly literate. I have clients who need to put up seven different languages, and when you place that on static signage it begins to look like the Vietnam War Memorial. With an electronic display, however, it allows you to fade and dissolve new copy and incorporate pictograms and icons,” says Randy Cooper, president of Cooper Signage and Graphics in Loganville, Ga.

Read the rest of this article in the March 2010 issue of Sign & Digital Graphics magazine or online in our article archive: Dynamic Wayfinding.