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Sign of the times Paul Mijksenaar Paul Mijksenaar Airport World, Volume 8 Issue 4 August - September 2003 |
| Paul’s corner In this section Paul Mijksenaar takes a look at some aspect of our field, sometimes in the form of a column commissioned by someone else, sometimes something from our extensive archive - the Print of the Month - or whatever takes his fancy. Many of the written pieces are in Dutch only. If there is sufficient demand, translations may be included at a later date. To read Paul’s previous columns, go to Publications. |
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 Sign of the times Good signage is a must for all customer friendly airports, writes Paul Mijksenaar. |
| The traveller heading for London, Orlando or New York will ultimately manage to reach their destination, regardless of the quality of service on board, the cleanliness of the toilets, the price of food at terminal restaurants, the attitude of taxi drivers or the clarity of airport signposting. So is signage worth the investment? Airport management teams often cite competition for space between wayfinding (directional) and revenue-earning advertising signage as a reason for their lack of investment in signage. “Anything goes as long as it doesn’t detract attention from or block the view of our beautiful buildings,” is the plea of architects striving to keep their creations free of the visual pollution caused by offices, partitions, fences, kiosks and advertising displays, including those promoting airlines and the airport itself. Not to mention (more and bigger) signs. As a signage designer I, of course, believe that a good, clear, conspicuous and reliable signposting system is a must for every airport listing customer satisfaction in its mission statement. Indeed, according to IATA’s Global Airport Monitor survey, the second highest rated airport service item is ‘Ease of finding your way through the airport/signposting’ A popular misconception among the world’s airports is that customer satisfaction can clearly be defined – it can’t. Customers want it all and quick and easy navigation through the airport, aided by good signposting, comes surprisingly high up the wish list. The challenge is to get the balance right between direct information and cheerful clutter and the task of solving the dilemma and providing visitors with a navigable environment is down to airport management, architects, the gateway’s retail and F&B concessionaires, signage designers and passengers. |
 Signposting was once the sole responsibility of the architect, particularly in the USA. This explains why signage systems at so many American airports feature drab colours like grey, black or, at best, dark-blue. After all, a lack of chromatic contrast makes for inconspicuous signposting that poses no threat to the architect’s attractively designed space.The first airport to question this dogma was Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, which in the late 1960s introduced chromatically contrasting signage that stood out against a timeless and highly neutral background (a concept currently known as ‘sustainable design’). Even today, Schiphol’s big yellow signs are a global icon of airport signposting, a model successfully adopted by countless other airports that include London Heathrow. One operator to more recently realise the potential of good signage is the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey (PANYNJ). Its dominant position in the marketplace – it runs the Big Apple’s JFK, LaGuardia and Newark airports – appears to indicate that its new-found appreciation of signage is based on awareness of its social importance rather than the desire for commercial gain. |
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Having commissioned American marketing firm JD Power and Associates to carry out a survey among users of the three airports, PANYNJ quite surprisingly discovered that 25% of all passengers stated that their satisfaction levels were heavily dependent on the supply of information that helped them navigate their way around the airport. A breakdown of factors within this category shows that customer satisfaction depends, fairly equally, on the ‘findability’ of gates (on time), airport facilities such as restrooms and restaurants and ground transportation services. On the basis of this survey, PANYNJ opted for a brand new signposting design. Survey findings inspired designers to divide signposting information into three recognisable groups, underpinned by lucid colour coding that would be instantly discernible amidst the often visually chaotic arteries and buildings of an airport complex. They selected: • Black information on a yellow background for signs - indicating check-in desks, gates and baggage carousels. • Yellow letters on a black background for signs indicating - airport facilities. • White letters on a green background for signs indicating - ground transportation and parking areas. Two matters of particular interest are the development of this concept in close collaboration with experts in applied ergonomics and the intensive on-site tests used to compare the new design with its predecessor. Strikingly superior, the new system is being introduced at all three New York airports. Current expansion of the colour-coded system includes signposting for roads and parking garages. Too many people seem to want to re-invent the wheel when it comes to new designs for airport signage, the biggest misconception being that each airport requires its own distinct system that give it a unique identity. Those foolish enough to go down this path and try and create a new world of visual information (new pictograms, colour coding, lettering, maps and even terminology) will ultimately fail, the first victim of this enthusiasm being the passenger who is suddenly confronted by a confusing new system used nowhere else in the world. |
| Despite significant efforts by international airport organisations like AAAE, AOCI and ATA, in practice, their advice is ignored. At best, one airport borrows an idea from another, with or without permission. Key reasons for this unwillingness to conform are overly rigid attempts to standardise signage, with no room for an airport to create its own identity, and concepts that do the opposite by offering too many options. The most successful standardised system, in my opinion, is one limited to a substantive description of basic principles, leaving implementation and details to airport designers. Smaller and/or more practically functioning airports should be offered a standard set of signposting components: no copyrights involved and free of charge. People in charge of airport facilities may see signposting as a costly and necessary evil, but it does effectively ease the minds of nervous passengers, instilling in them the confidence to face the ever-uncertain adventure that we call travel. |
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About the author Prof. Paul Mijksenaar is principal of Mijksenaar. The Dutch company with offices in Amsterdam and New York specialises in wayfinding. Its clients include Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, New York City Transit, Dutch Railways, Rotterdam Metro and Amsterdam Metro but they work also for hospitals, museums, stadiums and any other venue that needs signing. Paul Mijksenaar teaches Visual Information Design at Delft University (Holland). |
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