Development of a New Orientation Index for Airport Terminals

Abstract

Some people have difficulty locating their destinations in airport terminals in spite of the availability of signs. The reasons for this wayfinding problem are numerous, and they include the complexity of the terminals as well as the wayfinding aids within them. An improved quantitative measure of human orientation called the visibility index (VI) is investigated. The effects of the number of signs or decision points and the number of level changes on visual access were investigated in an experiment in a complex building at The University of Calgary. A relationship between the slowness in reaching a destination, the number of decision points, and the number of level changes was developed. A survey of 32 common terminal activity centers was conducted. The ranks and weights of these activity centers were determined based on responses of airport users at three airports. The weight and the slowness factor were incorporated into the VI model, which was tested at Vancouver International Airport.