Background

In 2017, Wayfound was contracted by the City of Armadale to complete a multi-pronged project aimed at improving visitor wayfinding in and around the City of Armadale. This project is part of the City’s tourism strategy which aims to raise awareness of the City’s tourism offer and attract more visitors. It is one part of the City’s revitalisation as a Strategic Metropolitan Region (see Metropolitan Redevelopment Authority).

Wayfound’s brief was to develop a signage strategy including:

• auditing and recommending improvements to the signage in the Armadale’s CBD
• designing a cost-effective wayfinding signage system for the CBD
• auditing and recommending improvements to the tourism, directional and information signage for visitors to the Armadale area
• creating a series of tourist maps for the City of Armadale and surrounding areas

Solution

The Wayfound consultants worked closely with the City’s Tourism Coordinator to complete this work. The audits involved multiple visits, mapping wayfinding and signage requirements in the CBD and the wider area. This was done using an online system to enable us to easily share our findings with the client and get feedback.

For the maps, we accessed multiple resources to create easy to use and adaptable tourism maps. And for the CBD signage, we used our experience of signage design and our expertise in wayfinding and visitor information to create a robust, durable, cost-effective system. Importantly, updates (eg: for changes in information or damage to signs) can be done easily by replacing only the outside panels rather than the entire sign. New signs can also be added as needed.

Delivery

• Tourist maps for print, signage and online publication
• Signage audits
• Signage mapping
• Tourism Signage Strategy
• Recommendations on improving visitor experience
• CBD wayfinding signage system – design & specification

Wayfound completed this project on time and on budget. Here’s a brief comment from the Suzy Parravicini, COA Tourism Coordinator about our work.

“I’m so pleased I selected Wayfound to complete the signage audit for tourism economic development, for the City of Armadale. Kim has been professional, diligent and a voice of authority while working on this project. This stuff hasn’t been looked at for 30 years in our patch. It’s going to drive results once the plan is implemented.”