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Introduction
Dementia is one of the most rapidly growing public health challenges of contemporary society with approximately 50m people worldwide affected, and this is predicted to increase to 131.5m people by 2050. The term dementia refers to a collection of terminal, currently largely untreatable diseases, in which cognitive functions become increasingly compromised. These include memory retrieval, capacity for new learning, communication, planning and executive function. Problems with visual perception, hallucinations and disorientation in time and place, can also frequently occur.
It has long been acknowledged that the design of environments in which people with dementia live can either support or exacerbate the disabling characteristics of these conditions (Judd et al., 1998). In such environments, the type, design, location and characteristics of signs is critically important. To date, little research has been undertaken to evaluate how effective signage is for lessening anxiety or assisting wayfinding in people with dementia.
This paper reports the outcomes of an empirical research project, “Showing the Way”, a joint study by the Dementia Centre, HammondCare Australia and the University of Edinburgh (2016). The first aim of this study was to assess current understanding about signage practice by exploring how people with dementia understand and use signage. The second aim was to develop a preliminary consensus about how to evaluate signage effectiveness for assisting people with dementia. The study outcomes will assist designers, architects, service providers and communities in improving signage design and use in both public and semi-private spaces used by people with dementia.
Semiotics is the study of signs, symbols and their communicative and interpretative processes (Chandler, 2007). Signs are commonly used to provide instruction, information, location and direction, for example, street signs and traffic signs. These signs require interpretation and decoding, frequently drawing on prior learned knowledge or familiarity. If a person’s ability to access or recall prior knowledge is compromised, a sign may fail to provide information or may be misunderstood. Signs also possess different intrinsic characteristics like words, pictures, colours, symbols, objects or sounds. For example, the word “poison” or colour red may alert to danger. Such characteristics are usually mediated by extrinsic environmental factors including adequate lighting, contrast of letters or symbols against their background, and the environmental contexts in which they appear. A sign’s...