Location

Wiesner Room

Description

In this talk, Paul Mijksenaar will demonstrate his ideas on the strong role of architecture for wayfinding (spatial) criteria and, accordingly, the task of the signage's (verbal) criteria. In addition, he will discuss the challenges and opportunities of dynamic signage with active interfaces.

Biographies

Paul Mijksenaar trained as an industrial designer but transformed through the years into an information designer. Over the last two decades, the focus of his work has turned to wayfinding; he has introduced a strong human factor approach, both for the perceptual (body) and cognitive (brain) aspects. A professor in Delft University of Technology's Industrial Design Department, he has introduced the application of human factors to the field information design, cooperating closely with cognitive psychology teams from both Delft University and Utrecht University. This collaborative work explores the use of public information and safety symbols, colour coding, human behaviour in public buildings, emergency egress, use of maps, and many others topics of visual information. This work led Mijksenaar to realize that "signage" was a too narrow-minded a viewpoint, and as such he changed his focus to 'wayfinding' in general. Wayfinding covers the whole process of orientation, information, and navigation surrounding and supporting use of signage. He also has determined that architectural features are key aspects of achieving a more intuitive and comprehensive wayfinding system in our built environments.

Host/Chair: Pattie Maes