Wayfinding: finding your way around campus
Key facts
What: Wayfinding helps students, staff and guests easily find their way around campus.
Challenge: Educational buildings are often large and complex, which can make orientation difficult, especially for new students and visitors.
Solution: Using digital wayfinding apps, 2D maps, 3D scans and augmented reality, routes and location information are made more accessible and personalised.
Everyone recognises the image of a student wandering through a building in search of the right classroom. You may even recall the mild panic of getting lost during your first days. Educational buildings can be large, confusing, and even intimidating. Wayfinding helps students, staff, and guests feel more confident navigating these environments.
What is wayfinding?
Wayfinding refers to all the ways we help students, staff, and visitors orient themselves and find their way around campus. It goes beyond simply providing directions—it can also include personalised information tailored to users’ needs or roles.
In the future, digital wayfinding tools are expected to become as common inside buildings as Google Maps is outdoors. Wayfinding supports a sense of belonging and makes navigating the campus feel natural.
In collaboration with institutions, SURF has initiated several projects to explore or enable various wayfinding solutions.
1. Wayfinding state of affairs 2023 report
In May 2023, NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences and SURF organised an interactive meeting to reflect on the wishes, experiences, knowledge and expertise surrounding wayfinding. The findings, solutions and recommendations of this pilot can be found in the report Wayfinding - State of affairs 2023.
2. 2D-wayfinding app
The University of Groningen has developed a 2D wayfinding app: RUG Maps (maps.rug.nl). The app is based on the knowledge and experience Geo-ICT gained earlier when developing similar functionality for the library app. RUG Maps works in all university buildings and helps students, staff and visitors easily find their way.
The experiences with this broad implementation will be shared so that other institutions can learn from it. Whether the app can be used at other institutions, the future will show.
3. eZwayZ pilot: 3D AR wayfinding app
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences has started a pilot with the 3D AR wayfinding app called eZwayZ. This app was built for users with visual challenges, but is of course usable by anyone. Before the app works, the building has to be scanned which creates a 3D point cloud. The app uses augmented reality to project information and routes onto the smartphone camera image. During the pilot, it will also be tested with a group of students with visual challenges. It is a valuable tool for this target group to find their way around the building independently.
Read a news release from NHL Stenden In Dutch.