This master thesis explores the future of wayfinding in 2035, using the Louvre Museum as a design context. Conducted at Mijksenaar, a design studio specialized in wayfinding, and following the Vision in Product Design (ViP) methodology. The project investigates how people may orient, navigate, and experience places in a world where technology increasingly provides the way for us.

Wayfinding today is often framed as a problem to be solved with clarity and efficiency. Digital tools, signage systems, and pre-planned routes ensure that the shortest path is always within reach. Yet this convenience also reduces the role of our intrinsic wayfinding skills, and with it, opportunities for exploration, discovery, and agency. This project starts from the belief that finding one’s way should not only be about reaching a destination, but about how we experience movement, space, and place along the way.

The thesis is structured in a step-by-step approach. The process combined literature research, expert interviews, and future context exploration to identify 150 context factors that will shape wayfinding in 2035. These were clustered into eleven patterns and organized into a 3x3 future framework, structured along two dimensions: sense-making of space (intrinsic, social, systemic) and authenticity of place (physical, cognitive, emotional) This framework describes nine typologies of wayfinding behavior and spatial guidance, each highlighting a differet mode of orientation in 2035. From this, a vision was developed for the Louvre: rather than directions to find your way, visitors should choose how to navigate, orient and experience the museum, and view the collection through an intentional lens.


The outcome of the project is the framework as route for the future way. The proposed wayfinding experiences in the Louvre Museum, are used as example of applying the framework in a context. The research outcomes consist of 150 context factors identified through literature study and expert interviews. Then, a future framework for wayfinding envisions how spatial guidance helps people to make sense of space and find authenticity in place in 2035. Finally, nine speculative design interventions were developed for the Louvre Museum and integrated together into one adaptive wayfinding system, with the Pathways concept. Pathways highlights how different parallel experiences can be brought together in one museum, supported by an innovative personalization technology.

For Mijksenaar, the work provides:
A strategic tool for spatial guidance.
A vision-driven method for aligning contexts with human experience.
A proof-of-concept (Pathways) that demonstrates the potential of personalized and meaningful navigation in public space.

In conclusion, this thesis aims to inspire both designers and non-designers to reconsider the role of wayfinding in our lives. In a world where the way is increasingly found for us, we can still choose to find our way differently and embrace the richness of movement, discovery, and getting lost.