Compared to the fields of web development and traditional graphic design, from each of which you could easily put together a list of 100 designers who are heavy users of Twitter, the highly specialized world of wayfinding and environmental graphic design still has a relatively small footprint on the microblogging service. This means that this list is somewhat ragtag, with a combination of individuals, companies, publications, and organizations. And most of them aren’t cranking out 50 tweets a day. All of them, however, do manage to regularly share links to wayfinding-related news from around the web, as well as information about new projects, events, and even interesting products.

SEGD (@SEGD)

You’re probably already familiar with the Society for Enviromental Graphic Design, “the global community of people working at the intersection of communication design and the built environment.” Their steady Twitter stream is a nice mix of industry news and organization-specific information.

Arrows and Icons (@ArrowsAndIcons)

Arrows and Icons is a recently launched online magazine for environmental graphic design. The web site is still in its infancy, but they are very active on Twitter, retweeting a lot of wayfinding-related items and tracking down new material as well. Editor Ryan Lascano also tweets as @ryanlascano.

Mark Vanderklipp (@corbinprez)

Mark Vanderklipp is the president of Corbin Design, a wayfinding and EGD firm based in Traverse City, Michigan. Other Corbin staffers on Twitter include @rick_stringer and @geneullerysmith.

Sander Baumann (@designworkplan)

Sander Baumann is an Amsterdam-based designer and editor of the DesignWorkPlan blog. He tweets regularly about wayfinding, typography, and the intersection of the two.

Ricardo Hernandez (@rockerdesign)

Ricardo Hernandez is a visual communication and branded environments professional based in Washington, DC.

Wayfinding (@Wayfinding)

Ah yes, the mysterious @Wayfinding. Their Twitter profile offers no clue of their true identity, other than that they live in Toronto, but they do manage to generate pretty interesting tweets on a regular basis.

Amy Rees (@amayarees)

Amy Rees is a Senior Associate at MERJE Design at Philadelphia. She tweets regularly about EGD-related topics, particularly exhibit design. @kelbennett is another MERJE staffer on Twitter.

fd2s (@fd2s)

Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our own Twitter presence. Not a high volume of tweets, but I do try to share a mix of fd2s updates, wayfinding-related news that I find on the web, and links to other things that are happening in the industry.

I hope that this list is a offers a good starting point for Twitter newcomers interested in wayfinding, or regular Twitter users looking to increase their involvement in the discussion about wayfinding and environmental graphic design. If you have other recommendations or ideas, feel free to speak up in the comments.

If you are a healthcare architect or facility manager who isn’t already familiar with all of these organizations, you should definitely give them a close look. And if you’re a wayfinding professional looking to develop a better understanding of how concepts such as family-centered care, patient satisfaction, and evidence-based design are shaping the environment at healthcare facilities, these groups are a great place to start.

1. The Center for Health Design

The Center for Health Design is the most active and robust of the organizations listed here. They are the driving force behind the annual Healthcare Design conference, which is the premier event for people interested in healthcare facility design, and they are also the creators of the Pebble Project, which is documenting the financial and quality-of-care benefits of better facility design, and the Evidence Based Design Accreditation & Certification program.

This is also the organization that gives the most attention to wayfinding, and seems to best understand both the impact that wayfinding can have on the patient experience, and amount of strategic thinking that goes into the development of a truly effective wayfinding program. They regularly feature presentations on wayfinding at the Healthcare Design conference, and have included the subject in many of their educational and research materials.

2. The American Society for Healthcare Engineering

Part of the American Hospital Association, the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) is a large, active organization, with quite a few resources available to members and the public. As the name implies, their focus leans a little bit more toward the technical aspects of facility design, with a lot of discussion of technical topics ranging from lean project delivery to displacement ventilation.

The annual Planning and Design Conference (PDC), which ASHE puts on in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects’ Academy of Architecture for Health, includes a healthy dose of evidence-based design and patient-experience-related sessions. And while this year’s conference (March 1-8 in Phoenix) doesn’t include any wayfinding sessions, I know they have included these in the past, and I even presented there a few years ago.

3. The American Institute of Architects’ Academy of Architecture for Health

In addition to their involvement with ASHE’s annual Planning and Design Conference and the Center for Health Design’s Healthcare Design Conference, the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health has several of its own resource offerings. These include an awards program, an irregularly published journal, fellowships, and a “Healthcare 101″ webinar series.

4. The Institute for Family-Centered Care

The Institute for Family-Centered Care is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting the understanding and practice of patient- and family-centered care. According to the organization, the core concepts of patient- and family-centered care are:

• Dignity and Respect. Health care practitioners listen to and honor patient and family perspectives and choices. Patient and family knowledge, values, beliefs and cultural backgrounds are incorporated into the planning and delivery of care.
• Information Sharing. Health care practitioners communicate and share complete and unbiased information with patients and families in ways that are affirming and useful. Patients and families receive timely, complete, and accurate information in order to effectively participate in care and decision-making.
• Participation. Patients and families are encouraged and supported in participating in care and decision-making at the level they choose.
• Collaboration. Patients and families are also included on an institution-wide basis. Health care leaders collaborate with patients and families in policy and program development, implementation, and evaluation; in health care facility design; and in professional education, as well as in the delivery of care.

Much of the organization’s focus is on operational or clinical issues such as doctor-patient communications and information sharing, but they extend their recommendations into facility design as well. In the Environment and Design section on their web site, for example, they address both the design process and some recommended features of a patient- and family-centered physical environment, including a section on signage.

5. The American College of Healthcare Architects

The American College of Healthcare Architects provides Board Certification for Architects who practice as healthcare specialists. In addition to administering the certification exam, the organization also puts on workshops and education sessions, and their searchable online member directory is a great resource if you are trying to find architects that specialize in healthcare design.

6. The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design

The Nursing Institute for Healthcare Design is a young organization whose mission is to “improve the nurse’s work environment through education and collaboration.” There’s not a lot of info on the public area of the site, but it sounds like an organization that may be worth keeping an eye on.

7. The Healthcare Facilities Symposium

The Healthcare Facilities Symposium is actually a for-profit event, not technically connected to any industry organization. It’s definitely not a fly-by-night operation, however. It has been around for 22 years, the program is very good, and it typically features at least one session devoted to wayfinding. My impression is that this event falls somewhere between the Healthcare Design and ASHE conferences. It’s not quite as high-minded as the former, but a little less nuts-and-bolts than the latter.

Let me know if you are familiar with any organizations that I have missed, or feel free to share your recommendations in the comments.

There are several questions that touch on wayfinding-related issues, and there’s even one question that asks specifically about the prevalence of “Integrated Wayfinding” in new healthcare facilities, which is nice to see.

The results of the survey will be published in a future issue of Healthcare Design magazine. The survey only takes about 15 minutes to complete, and when you finish you are eligible for a 50% discount at the CHD online store. So if you’ve had you’re eye on one of the Center’s publications or research reports, now’s your chance to get a deal.

The student work, which is on display at AIA New York’s Center for Architecture through January 24, includes some intriguing ideas, particularly the attempts to utilize and expand upon the wayfinding tools that people use naturally, such as architectural landmarks and neighborhood boundaries.

This New York Times article from 2007 provides some background on the pilot program that was the impetus for this competition, and also has an image of the rather uninspired original version of the decal.

Research Coalition funds will support cutting edge research in the field of evidence-based design (EBD). All research studies will go through a peer-review process, conducted by The Research Advisory Council, and principal investigators will be strongly encouraged to submit for publication to peer-reviewed journals.

Studies whose results can be easily disseminated to and applied by facility owners, architects and stakeholders in the form of reports, tools and design recommendations will be given high priority.

The deadline for proposals is January 15. More information, including the complete RFP document and a project budget template, is available at the Center for Health Design web site.

If you aren’t already aware of it, however, you should know that Healthcare Design.08 is just around the corner, on November 8-11 at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in Washington D.C., and that it is once again loaded with interesting educational sessions, workshops, and facility tours.

This event continues to be the best of the annual healthcare-related conferences for people interested in facility design. The American Society for Healthcare Engineering’s Health Facility Planning, Design and Construction (PDC) conference and the Institute for Family-Centered Care’s Conference on Patient- and Family-Centered Care are both interesting as well, but neither has the strong emphasis on facility design (and evidence-based design in particular) that you find at HCD.

Representatives from fd2s will be at the conference again this year, so if you are attending, and are interested in getting together to talk about wayfinding (or just to say hello), contact me and we can exchange contact information and schedule a time and place to meet.