Wayfinding + wellbeing: connecting people with place to shape positive human experiences

Wayfinding can have a positive or a negative impact on our wellbeing. Designers aim to create spaces people want to spend time in and information to help us navigate easily, but do people with mental health issues navigate built environments differently? Wayfinding often involves recalling information, interpreting information and making decisions based on what we see in the environment. Mental health issues can adversely affect these skills and feeling disorientated can negatively impact a person’s ability to travel or enjoy a place. Our October event gave two different perspectives on how people respond to space, interact with it and move through it, and how wayfinding success or failure can impact our wellbeing. Roger Mackett (UCL) shared findings from his recent study of issues encountered during domestic travel by people with mental health conditions. Sara Harraway (CPMG Architects) showed us how they design places tailored for their purpose, and considered the wellbeing of the people who would be using the spaces to create positive wayfinding experiences.

About our speakers

Roger Mackett is Emeritus Professor of Transport Studies at University College London. He has researched various aspects of transport policy including: the barriers to access for older and disabled people; the use of cars for short trips; and the effects of car use on children’s lives. He is a member of the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) which advises the Department for Transport about issues affecting travel by disabled people. He is also a member of the Standing Committee on Accessible Transportation and Mobility of the US Transportation Research Board (TRB).

Sara Harraway is a Chartered Interior Designer and shareholder and director of CPMG, a UK-based consultancy providing services in architecture and interior design. Committed to shaping positive human experiences, the practice’s designs are crafted in accordance with its values: PEOPLE PURPOSE PLACE, acknowledging that each brief is unique and the design must be informed by the people who will use it: who they are, what they do, how they do it, what with, who with and where. It is only through in-depth stakeholder engagement that a highly functional and rational environment can be created which will, in turn, promote motivation, productivity and wellbeing.

Recording