Getting workers again into the workplace is one problem. Ensuring the workplace works properly as soon as they get there may be one other.
That second problem has turn into tougher as workplaces have turn into extra versatile. Workers could sit someplace completely different each time they arrive in. The colleagues they wish to see may be on one other flooring or in one other a part of the constructing. Assembly rooms replenish shortly on busy days, whereas different areas sit largely unused. Guests must navigate the identical setting with out understanding the constructing in any respect.
The numbers present simply how a lot exercise office groups are managing. Eptura’s Office Index discovered that 34% of companies deliberate to extend workplace attendance. Desk bookings grew 33% yr over yr, and the variety of guests per location almost doubled over three years.
Serving to folks discover their manner by way of this setting takes greater than indicators and directories. Office wayfinding now connects flooring plans, reserving programs, cellular apps, customer administration, and office information. Achieved properly, these connections take away among the small frustrations that may make an workplace day tougher than it must be.
Key takeaways
- Wayfinding is now a part of the broader office expertise. In hybrid environments, workers want greater than instructions. They need assistance discovering out there areas, colleagues, facilities, and assets as office circumstances change all through the day
- Related programs make navigation extra helpful. Interactive flooring plans turn into extra worthwhile after they work with desk and room reserving, customer administration, worker directories, and office information
- Higher wayfinding helps extra intentional workplace days. Workers can spend much less time looking for areas and folks and extra time collaborating, assembly, and finishing the work they got here into the workplace to do
- Office information provides context to navigation. Availability, utilization, worker schedules, and area data will help folks discover choices that match what they want quite than merely displaying them the place areas exist
- AI could make wayfinding extra proactive. As office programs turn into higher related, AI will help suggest acceptable areas and automate routine selections based mostly on real-time office data
Hybrid work modified the way in which folks navigate the workplace
For years, familiarity did a lot of the work that wayfinding expertise does at present.
Workers knew the place their desks had been. They knew the place to seek out their groups and which assembly rooms had been close by. Even in a big workplace, following the identical routine every single day made the constructing simpler to navigate.
Hybrid schedules broke lots of these routines.
Office Index analysis reveals that workplace attendance continues to peak in the midst of the week. Workers are additionally coming in for particular causes, notably to work alongside different folks. That modifications what they want from the office.
Contemplate somebody coming in on Wednesday as a result of most of their staff can be there. They want a desk, ideally near these colleagues. They could want a room for a day assembly and a smaller area for a fast dialog later. In the event that they’re working from a flooring they don’t normally go to, in addition they must know the place every part is.
None of these duties is especially difficult. Collectively, although, they will add pointless friction to the day.
That friction is price listening to. On a latest episode of Eptura’s Office Innovator Podcast, office guide Tonya Thornburgh argued that innovation within the constructed setting is much less about including the most recent expertise and extra about understanding human habits, eradicating limitations, and designing adaptable programs.
Wayfinding is a sensible instance of that concept. The purpose isn’t to present workers extra expertise to handle. It’s to take away the moments the place they lose time or encounter uncertainty as a result of they don’t know the place to go subsequent.
Wayfinding must mirror a office that modifications all through the day
Bodily indicators nonetheless matter. Folks want room names, flooring numbers, instructions, accessibility data, emergency signage, and different visible cues as they transfer by way of a constructing.
The limitation is {that a} signal can solely inform somebody a lot.
A listing would possibly present the place a collaboration space is, however not whether or not anybody is utilizing it. A flooring plan can determine a financial institution of desks with out displaying which of them can be found. An arrow can level towards assembly rooms however can not assist an worker select one that matches six folks and is free for the subsequent hour.
Digital wayfinding fills in these gaps.
Interactive flooring plans give workers a method to search the office quite than memorize it. When these maps join with desk and room reserving, folks can see what is accessible in addition to the place it’s. Cellular entry implies that data stays with them as they transfer across the constructing.
The essential shift isn’t from bodily to digital. It’s from static data to related data.
That distinction issues in a office the place availability, occupancy, and even the place somebody’s teammates are sitting can change from at some point to the subsequent.
Take into consideration the worker’s entire workplace day
Wayfinding makes extra sense when considered as a part of an worker journey quite than a standalone instrument.
An worker would possibly determine to come back in after seeing that a number of teammates can be within the workplace. Earlier than leaving residence, they reserve a desk close to the group. After they arrive, their cellphone reveals them the place to go. Later, somebody suggests getting collectively for a fast assembly. They discover an out there room close by, reserve it, and head there.
There isn’t a level in that sequence the place the worker thinks, “I’m utilizing wayfinding.”
They’re merely getting by way of their day.
That’s an essential benchmark for office expertise. Workers shouldn’t have to grasp the programs behind an expertise for that have to work properly.
Eptura’s office app brings a number of of those interactions collectively. Workers can view flooring plans, discover out there desks and assembly rooms, find colleagues and customary areas, and reserve areas from a cellular gadget.
For hybrid workers specifically, having these features collectively removes the belief that everybody already is aware of the constructing. It additionally makes unfamiliar firm areas simpler to make use of. Somebody visiting one other regional workplace can work together with the office in a lot the identical manner they do at their normal location.
The customer journey begins earlier than the foyer
Guests have even much less room for uncertainty as a result of they don’t have earlier expertise with the office to fall again on.
And organizations are welcoming extra of them.Office Index discovered that customer numbers per location almost doubled over three years.
A customer’s impression of the office can kind properly earlier than a receptionist says howdy.
Which entrance ought to they use? The place ought to they park? Do they want identification? Who’re they assembly? What occurs after they arrive?
Offering that data forward of time eliminates quite a lot of pointless uncertainty.
With a related customer administration course of, the host can pre-register a visitor and ship related arrival particulars upfront. As soon as the customer reaches the constructing, a QR code or different digital workflow can pace up check-in. The host receives a notification, and the customer has the knowledge wanted to get to the assembly location.
What issues is the continuity. The customer isn’t being handed from one disconnected course of to a different. Arrival, check-in, host communication, and navigation really feel like components of the identical expertise.
For office groups, that additionally means fewer routine questions and handbook handoffs. Reception can spend much less time giving primary instructions whereas guests get extra management over their very own journey.
Office information makes navigation extra helpful
A map solutions one query: The place is it?
Related office information can reply the subsequent one: Is it price going there?
That distinction turns into notably helpful in versatile workplaces.
If an worker wants someplace to work, understanding there are desks on the fourth flooring doesn’t inform them a lot. Seeing which desks can be found is best. Seeing an out there desk close to three teammates, with the gear they want and an open collaboration area close by, is best nonetheless.
Attending to that stage requires data from completely different office programs to work collectively.
Reserving information supplies availability. Ground plans present location. Worker schedules can present the place colleagues plan to work. House data identifies gear and facilities. Occupancy and utilization information provides one other view of how the setting is getting used.
The knowledge is efficacious for office groups, too.
Patterns in bookings, searches, routes, and utilization can expose issues that aren’t apparent from a flooring plan. Workers could repeatedly crowd into one space whereas comparable area close by goes unused. Sure rooms could obtain fixed demand. A typical route by way of a constructing might turn into congested throughout peak intervals.
The bigger alternative is to make use of that data to create workplaces that reply to how folks really work.
Rebecca Swanner, Affiliate Principal and Senior Office Design Chief at HED, mentioned that concept on a 2026 episode of Eptura’s Office Innovator Podcast. She described responsive environments that use real-time information to adapt to folks’s wants and argued that office leaders ought to look past occupancy when measuring whether or not a office is profitable.
That distinction is essential for wayfinding. Realizing how many individuals got here into the constructing tells office groups little or no about whether or not these workers discovered the fitting areas, related with colleagues, or had a productive workplace day.
Over time, the connection works each methods. Higher information helps workers navigate the workplace, whereas the way in which workers navigate supplies office groups with extra details about how the workplace is performing.
Related expertise issues greater than one other standalone instrument
Most massive organizations don’t have a scarcity of office expertise.
Actually, the other is commonly true.
Office Index discovered that two-thirds of companies use between six and 40 options to handle office operations. That creates an apparent consideration for any group evaluating wayfinding expertise: Will it join with the programs already shaping the office expertise, or turn into one other place workers must search for data?
A flooring plan turns into extra helpful when it is aware of which desks can be found. Desk reserving turns into extra helpful when an worker can see the place a workspace sits in relation to colleagues. Customer administration turns into extra helpful when arrival data carries by way of to the visitor’s expertise contained in the constructing.
Lisa Copland, Managing Director and Founding father of Presynct, made an identical level on the Office Innovator Podcast. She described office transformation as an interconnected system of enterprise technique, office expertise, spatial design, expertise, and alter administration. Enhancing one piece with out contemplating the others can restrict the affect of the funding.
The identical pondering applies to wayfinding. A digital map by itself could clear up a navigation drawback. Connecting that map to reserving, office information, customer administration, and different programs turns it into a part of the office expertise.
Actual-time data issues for a similar purpose. An workplace can change significantly between 8 a.m. and a couple of p.m. A static illustration of the constructing doesn’t essentially mirror the choices an worker has at that second.
Search must also lengthen past room numbers. Workers could also be in search of an individual, an amenity, a division, a kind of workspace, or just someplace acceptable to work for the subsequent hour.
Cellular entry makes these capabilities sensible whereas somebody is shifting by way of the constructing quite than sitting at a pc.
For organizations managing a number of areas, consistency turns into one other consideration. Workers shouldn’t must relearn the fundamental means of discovering a desk or assembly room each time they go to one other workplace.
The purpose isn’t so as to add as many wayfinding options as doable. It’s to make the completely different components of the office simpler to make use of collectively.
Accessibility can’t be an afterthought
A related office isn’t efficient if a part of the workforce has issue utilizing it.
Bodily and digital wayfinding ought to account for accessible routes, readable shows, distinction, clear language, assistive applied sciences, and the wants of individuals navigating the office in several methods. Relying on the group and placement, multilingual assist and visible or auditory steerage might also be essential.
Eptura’s office wayfinding steerage emphasizes accessibility-first design, together with accessible routes, readable fonts, high-contrast visuals, intuitive language, and assist for assistive applied sciences.
There’s additionally a broader profit to getting these fundamentals proper.
Clearer directions assist somebody visiting the workplace for the primary time. Constant room names assist workers who don’t work from that location typically. Straightforward-to-read maps assist somebody shifting shortly between conferences. Easy routes assist guests who’re already making an attempt to maintain observe of an unfamiliar constructing and a gathering schedule.
Designing for accessibility typically ends in a office that’s simpler for everybody to navigate.
AI wants office intelligence behind it
The following step in wayfinding isn’t essentially a greater map.
It’s decreasing how a lot looking workers must do within the first place.
Suppose an worker wants a desk for the day. They might have a look at a flooring plan, test the place teammates are sitting, examine out there desks, see which areas have displays, and select the most suitable choice.
Or they may ask: “The place can I discover a desk close to my staff with a monitor out there?”
When office programs share the fitting data, an clever platform can use availability, colleague schedules, floor-plan information, and office facilities to slender the choices.
However AI is just as helpful because the office data behind it.
Melissa Marsh, Founder and Government Director at PLASTARC, addressed that problem on the Office Innovator Podcast. Her level was simple: Organizations want intelligence earlier than they will anticipate AI to ship significant office outcomes. Constructing and design programs have to be digitized and related with HR, information, and expertise platforms.
That basis is especially related to clever wayfinding. An AI assistant can not suggest one of the best desk close to a staff if desk availability, worker schedules, flooring plans, and office assets exist in remoted programs.
Integration offers AI context.
We’re already seeing the worker expertise transfer in that route. Clever reserving will help automate office coordination, utilizing out there data to cut back the variety of routine selections workers must make themselves.
That modifications the position of office expertise. As a substitute of offering one other interface workers must handle, the expertise begins doing extra of the coordination behind the scenes.
For wayfinding, the chance is to maneuver from “Right here’s what’s out there” towards “Right here’s the choice that makes essentially the most sense for what you’re making an attempt to do.”
What ought to office leaders search for in wayfinding expertise?
A refined digital map isn’t sufficient to inform office leaders whether or not a wayfinding resolution will work throughout a fancy portfolio.
The higher questions are about what occurs round that map.
Can workers seek for folks as simply as rooms? Does availability replace as bookings change? Can somebody reserve a workspace with out leaving the expertise? Will guests obtain helpful data earlier than they arrive? Does the system work persistently throughout completely different buildings? Can office groups see how folks use areas quite than merely how these areas seem on a flooring plan?
Integration needs to be excessive on the checklist.
The wayfinding expertise turns into extra helpful when it might probably join with desk and room reserving, customer administration, worker directories, area administration, and utilization data. In any other case, workers could discover themselves leaping between programs to reply what seems like one easy query.
Cellular entry issues for an equally sensible purpose: Navigation occurs whereas persons are shifting.
Scalability is one other consideration for organizations with a number of areas. Workers may match primarily from one workplace however often go to a number of others. Giving them a well-known method to search, guide, and navigate can cut back the educational curve each time they enter a brand new constructing.
Lastly, have a look at what the system offers office groups in return. Navigation shouldn’t solely assist workers devour office data. Search patterns, utilization information, and different insights will help CRE and FM groups perceive what folks want from the office and the place the present expertise falls quick.
Take a look at wayfinding by way of an operational lens
The simplest method to measure wayfinding is whether or not folks attain their locations.
That doesn’t inform the entire story.
Office leaders must also contemplate what higher navigation modifications elsewhere within the group.
If workers can discover out there areas extra simply, does utilization enhance? If guests obtain higher data earlier than arriving, do reception groups spend much less time answering routine questions? If workers can find colleagues and collaboration areas shortly, does the workplace higher assist the interactions they got here in for?
These questions carry the dialog again to outcomes.
Swanner’s recommendation on the Office Innovator Podcast was to “concentrate on outcomes over occupancy.” For office leaders, meaning shifting past attendance as the first measure of whether or not an workplace technique is working.
There are additionally questions office information will help reply over time.
If sure areas persistently appeal to extra visitors than others, why? Are workers struggling to seek out underused areas? Do assembly room searches reveal a mismatch between the rooms out there and the rooms folks really want? Are workers repeatedly selecting one neighborhood as a result of different choices are much less seen?
These are now not simply navigation questions. They’re office planning and operations questions.
That’s the place clever wayfinding turns into notably worthwhile. It helps workers make higher selections within the second whereas giving office groups a clearer view of how folks work together with the setting.
Making the office simpler to make use of
Wayfinding doesn’t have to be essentially the most seen office expertise to have an effect.
In lots of instances, the other is true. The higher the expertise works, the much less workers and guests have to consider it.
They’ll discover the fitting desk. They know the place their colleagues are. An out there assembly room isn’t troublesome to find. A customer understands what to do after they arrive. Transferring by way of an unfamiliar workplace doesn’t require stopping each jiffy to ask for instructions.
Creating that have requires greater than placing a digital map on high of an current office.
Latest conversations on Eptura’s Office Innovator Podcast level to the identical broader route. Thornburgh emphasizes eradicating human friction quite than chasing expertise for its personal sake. Copland describes office transformation as an interconnected system quite than a sequence of particular person modifications. Marsh argues that organizations want related digital intelligence earlier than AI can ship on its promise. Swanner brings the dialogue again to responsive environments and outcomes that inform leaders whether or not the office is definitely working.
Collectively, these concepts supply a helpful manner to consider clever wayfinding.
The expertise issues, however the finish purpose isn’t navigation for navigation’s sake. It’s giving folks a better manner to make use of the office whereas giving CRE and FM groups higher details about how that office performs.
Trendy workplaces already generate massive quantities of knowledge about how folks use area, the place they collaborate, and which assets they want. Connecting that data to the worker and customer journey can flip wayfinding from a primary navigation operate right into a significant a part of office expertise and operations.
Uncover how Eptura’s related office technologies will help workers and guests transfer by way of the office with much less friction whereas giving groups higher visibility into how their areas are getting used.
Ceaselessly Requested Questions
By Amanda Meade
Amanda Meade is a content material creator at Eptura, specializing in office expertise, assembly productiveness, and rising tendencies in workspace planning and customer administration. With a background in content material advertising and marketing and web optimization, she crafts clear, actionable content material that helps groups work smarter by way of in-office collaboration. All through her profession, Amanda has labored throughout industries, together with residence providers, healthcare, actual property, and SaaS, creating a singular capacity to distill complicated subjects into sensible insights.
