Wayfinding refers to the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. There are several traditions of navigation. ...

Wayfinding is often used to refer to traditional navigation methods used by indigenous peoples. In more modern times, wayfinding is used in the context of architecture to refer to the user experience of orientation and choosing a path within the built environment, and it also refers to the set of architectural and/or design elements that aids orientation. The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, αρχιτεκτων, a master builder, from αρχι- chief, leader and τεκτων, builder, carpenter) is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. ...

Researcher Kevin Lynch coined the term in his 1960 book "Image of the City". In 1984 environmental psychologist Romedi Passini published the full-length "Wayfinding in Architecture" and expanded the concept to include signage and other graphic communication, clues inherent in the building's spatial grammar, logical space planning, audible communication, tactile elements, and provision for special-needs users. Kevin Andrew Lynch (1918 Chicago, Illinois - 1984 Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts), American urban planner and author. ...

Historically, wayfinding refers to the techniques used by travelers over land and asea to find relatively unmarked and often mislabled routes. These include but are not limited to dead reconing, map and compass, astronomical positioning and, more recently, global positioning.