Airport wayfinding — A design system





Project objectives

  1. Detailed signage system.
  2. Electronic flight information boards.
  3. Gate numbering and zoning.
  4. Transport pictogram set, based on the best of current systems.
  5. New typeface design based on principles from great fonts used across systems.
  6. Wayfinding app for internal environments.

Final Thesis

User Research


Passenger flows and types of user





Comparing the current signage of the environment to understand the visual noise.










Drawing passenger routes through airports










Developing the Fruvetica typeface

I created ‘Fruvetica’ a hybrid typeface, based on the best principles from both Helvetica and Frutiger. Two of the most successful typefaces used in airport signage systems.







Zoning Areas by Landmarks



Designing paper flight tickets

Shows the route through the airport by zones


Sketchup 3D models

Prototyping the proposed system into a model for the current airport. The terminal was drawn in Sketchup, and the design was overlayed to show how it would work in principle.






Archicad Models

Detailed models of the airport terminals were made in Archicad, and a too scale design system was integrated, showing the relation of scale with the environment.








Typographic Grid system





Design system elements

Color Scheme
Pictogram set

Result


A design manual was created for the Birmingham Airport, which was given over to a design firm to implement the system across the airport in 2008.