The Assessment of Long-Term Care Environments for Wayfinding Design

The purpose of this article is to compare three different methods to assess the complexity of a long-term care (LTC) environment for wayfinding before and after an environmental design intervention. The methods include space syntax (SS), the Wayfinding Checklist (WC), and the Tool to Assess Wayfinding Complexity (TAWC).

Wayfinding is important to maintain older adults' independent functioning. The design of environments can impact wayfinding ability by providing support; this can be via building structure or by environmental design features such as signage and landmarks. Few methods or tools have been scientifically validated to assess environments for wayfinding complexity. In order to compare environments in terms of complexity and to measure the impact of interventions, valid and reliable tools are necessary.

This article discusses the results of the use of three wayfinding design assessment tools using three routes in one LTC environment. The results of the three tools are discussed.

SS analysis could quantitatively measure the complexity of routes using integration values, which indicates connectedness. The TAWC and the WC were able to measure differences in visual field scores pre- and postenvironmental intervention. There were limitations to each tool: the lack of psychometric properties for the TAWC and the WC, and the lack of ability to measure changes in design features within visual fields with SS.

Multiple tools to assess environments for wayfinding design may be needed in studies that test environmental interventions. Future research is needed to provide psychometric testing for the tools.