Wayfinding: What Are The Pros and Cons Of Using A Professional Signage Company?

Choosing the right creative support partners can have an enormous impact on your business. This applies to wayfinding signage as much as to any other form of visual media and marketing collateral and is becoming increasingly important for companies of all sizes and sectors. In this article, we examine the importance of brand-conscious wayfinding signage and go over the top reasons to use a professional wayfinding signage supplier.

What Are Wayfinding Signs?

Wayfinding signs display the information that customers, visitors, or staff need to easily find their way around your buildings and outdoor areas. In other words, these signs help people go from A to B around your premises without wasting time or feeling frustrated.

Wayfinding signs can be printed or digital, although digital and interactive wayfinding signage is the most effective solution for large venues like hospitals, large offices, universities, or shopping centres.

It’s possible to design your own signage in-house if you have the creative expertise, materials, and production equipment, or to use a general-purpose printing company. However, there are several important benefits of working with a professional company that specialises in wayfinding signage.

Advantages

• Professionally designed signage is designed for clarity and will ensure that the messages and instructions are clearly understandable to your target audience. With no ambiguity around signage, people will find it easier to get where they need to go, which means it can save your staff’s time as they won’t have to constantly deal with queries about directions.
• Well-designed signage can provide all types of information, from WiFi passwords to opening and closing hours, local weather info, details about nearby parking or public transport, etc.
• Professional signage can reduce stress in visitors who aren’t familiar with the building layout, as they will be able to get to where they want and find the right person easily and on their own.
• Professional signage can subtly support your brand identity, building subliminal awareness of your business, and attaching positive associations to a person’s experience of your premises.

Disadvantages

Overall, well-designed signage helps deliver a memorable visitor experience, which is good for your organisation – and working with a signage specialist makes it easier to achieve this positive outcome. However, any professional supplier will also make you aware of the cons and have a mitigation strategy in mind. Some of the potential pitfalls of wayfinding signage are:

• The need for signage updates involves time and money. Outdated information can lead to negative customer experiences and frustrated visitors – so it’s important to keep on top of updates. However, once you’ve established a direction for your signage it’s crucial to maintain a consistent brand identity. For this reason, we recommend viewing signage as an ongoing strategy as opposed to a one-off purchase, with some additional investment required throughout the product lifecycle.
• Digital signage is connected to the electric supply, so it won’t work if there’s a power outage, unless you have a generator, and individual signs can sometimes develop technical faults. Although digital wayfinding is an attractive and effective way of catching people's attention and delivering information, it’s recommended to have backup printed material available.

The Bottom Line

Although every signage solution has pros and cons, working with a professional company will ensure you get ongoing support through the entire design process and beyond – to installation and after-sales care. Contact the team today on sales@imagetechnique.co.uk to find out about our wayfinding signage solutions and how they can be personalised for higher impact.

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