Pedestrian Wayfinding

•

Ekaterinburg is a large and incredibly interesting city. Local residents know this, but visitors don’t always guess it. To introduce them to the city and tell them what places are worth visiting, a new pedestrian wayfinding was developed.

Pilot Project

In 2017, the first steles were installed near Dvorets Molodyozhi Culture Center. At the “pilot” we established the vision, checked the technology, and tested hypotheses.

The Stele for the 2018 World Cup

Following the pilot stele for the 2018 World Cup, a new large wayfinding stele was installed. In addition to its size, it was different in that it had a standard map on one side and an interactive screen on the other. It not only showed a map of the entire city, but also transmitted video greetings from the citizens to a large monitor installed next to the Ekaterinburg Arena stadium.

After two years of experiments and tests, we were ready to implement pedestrian wayfinding throughout the city. By this point, several solutions had been added to the design that fundamentally distinguish Ekaterinburg wayfinding from wayfinding in other cities.

1. In any pedestrian wayfinding, from Moscow to New York City, the “You are here” sign is a formal and inconspicuous arrow. Our maps have a beautiful, large, recursive marker in the form of a man in front of a stele, which says: “Look, this is you!”

2. Highlighted objects on the map have prompts as to why they are interesting. When all wayfindings say, “Look, here is a building,” our wayfinding says, “Look, here one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, it’s definitely worth a walk.”

3. The map shows tourists the whole city and offers interesting routes for walking.

4. Even street art is marked on the map, as it is an important feature of Ekaterinburg. So our wayfinding truly represents not only the city, but also the spirit of the city.

5. The geographical details of the map have been simplified to make it look cleaner and not distract from the main point.

It was geographical.

It became schematic.

6. The base of the wayfinding steles is made of “eternal” Corten steel. It is a particularly weather-resistant alloy steel with a velvety texture. The oxide layer ensures high durability of Corten steel, prevents corrosion and forms a noble dark brown patina, referring us to the history and spirit of the mining region.