WAYFINDING Speaking about why the study was needed, Lang says, “During Covid-19, a lot of extra signage and information was added throughout the passenger journey. As passenger volumes began to return following the pandemic, we started to see declines in satisfaction with wayfinding at Heathrow. So, there was a need to assess our wayfinding messaging to ensure passengers received a predictable and reliable journey. The hypothesis of the study was that we would get a read on optimal flow paths and poorly performing strategic signs.” The wayfinding project ran from December 2022 to January 2023. It focused on Terminal 5 and involved intercepting passengers at several key journey touchpoints, such as arrival at the airport, check-in, post-security, disembarkation and onward transportation on arrival. “Participants were then asked to continue their journey from these points, and we tracked their eye movement throughout and followed it up with a qualitative in-depth interview at the end focusing on key challenges they faced along their journey,” Lang adds. Passenger eye tracking During the project, Heathrow worked closely with global tech firm Tobii, which used its eye-tracking technology to measure how people navigated through T5. “We also carried out post-session surveys and task evaluations, analyzed the data and compiled the results,” says Jon Ward, VP, EMEA at Tobii. “Thereafter we workshopped the findings to help Heathrow understand where challenges and opportunities were in its wayfinding, what was working well and chances for optimization.” Tobii used its Tobii Pro Glasses 3 eye-tracking solution on the Heathrow project. These glasses feature discreet cameras that view the participants’ eyes and a forward camera that films the environment they are moving around in. “Some very clever algorithms bring these together so that in real time we can see exactly where the participants are looking,” explains Ward. “Seeing through the eyes of the passenger using the eye-tracking technology allows us to pinpoint and measure every element of their journey, the interaction with the environment and their decision making process.” The wayfinding study identified several bottlenecks and problems within Heathrow T5, with the most evident being in the Border Force area and with passengers trying to find People have limited time and are on the move, so any redundant information should be removed Jon Ward, Tobii trains to London. Ward explains, “Arriving passengers were met by a busy bottleneck when reaching the Border Force area, where lots of new information was presented and choices had to be made quickly. This new information and changed visual elements required people to recalibrate their focus to understand what was relevant to them so they could make the right choice. Passengers heading for the border rather than connections struggled the most, as it was not obvious which direction to go because the signage was easy to miss and the direction not intuitive.” Project findings Eye tracking has helped Heathrow to better understand passenger needs Heathrow found passengers were struggling to find train information ABOVE RIGHT BELOW Now that the wayfinding project has been completed, Heathrow and Tobii have identified the main findings. One was that people look for informational consistency and instructive and directional clarity to guide them in their journeys. “People have limited time and are on the move, so any redundant information should be removed. You have a small amount of time to attract, engage and inform, so keep it concise,” Ward says. The study also revealed that people tend to look up and beyond for information to plan their next steps – signs on floors, pillars and walls perform less effectively. And finally, people prefer to be told what to do rather than processing information themselves and then making decisions. “Make calls to action clear and simple with iconography to overcome language barriers,” Ward adds. Overall, Heathrow has identified that it needs to be more consistent with its approach to wayfinding across the whole journey. “We need to avoid temporary tactical signage below head height and work on consolidating the volume of signage we have,” Lang explains. Speaking about how successful the project has been, he continues, “We have managed to reverse the wayfinding satisfaction declines we were seeing in 2021 and 2022 by rationalizing the end-to-end wayfinding journey, particularly through decluttering walkways and decision points, reconfiguring the entrance to immigration and revamping onward travel signage.” Although the study focused on T5, the work has also produced a set of best-practice recommendations that have now been applied to Heathrow’s overall wayfinding guidelines and standards to ensure better consistency across all its terminals. “In 2024 we are rolling out similar research across other terminals,” Lang adds. Heathrow will once again be enlisting the help of Tobii to accomplish this. “Each terminal at Heathrow is very different in its layout and design, and we will be repeating the same research on Terminals 2 and 3 later this year as part of Heathrow’s continued focus on exceeding customers’ expectations,” Ward concludes. www.PassengerTerminalToday.com 36 Passenger Terminal World APRIL 2024