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At a glance

The problem

Polaris publishes city walking maps for tourism boards. Each map has its own visual style set by the destination. But customers (tourism boards, hotel chains) wanted the same wayfinding symbols across every map. They needed one shared set for "viewpoint," "step-free entrance," "drinking water," and more.

What I did

Field research. Spent 4 days walking with map users in Edinburgh, Bath, and Galway. Noted where they paused, checked the legend, or asked someone for help. In total: 312 wayfinding choices across 23 walks.

Symbol audit. Listed every wayfinding symbol Polaris had ever used (218 total). Cut them to 47 key symbols. Of those, 34 were already used the same way in over 70% of maps. The other 13 were the design problem.

Symbol design. Worked with the cartography team for 8 weeks. We tested each symbol with print proofs and user tests. The final set scored 93% recognition with 24 new users, up from 64%.

Documentation. Wrote a 28-page wayfinding standard that Polaris now ships to every new design team. It is light on theory and full of examples. It shows the rejected versions of every symbol with a note on what failed.

Outcome