The Liverpool Hospital project consisted of a large extension to an existing building, and the renovation of a considerable part of the rest of the hospital.

The building design and the campus lay-out created an interesting navigational challenge. On top of that, the architect on the Liverpool Hospital project, Rice Daubney, requested there be no ceiling suspended signage in the corridors.

As with all hospital wayshowing projects, we emphasised the importance of adapting the developed system as a whole; manage

temporary signage, train staff, have the correct pre-visit information in the appointment letter, develop an understandable map, uniformly written instructions and an up-to-date website.

The importance of these tools is often overlooked, but worth their investment each and every time.

For the wayfinding strategy we chose to use simple numeric codes for the destinations, similar to the paradigm used for airports and railway stations.

Translating the often difficult to pronounce or remember medical department names into a simple number (just like a gate at the airport) works well for people with language, reading or cognitive problems.

The added advantages for the hospital are that it minimises signage hardware and requires less maintenance which will make the signage look better for longer.