Improving the wayfinding to the commercial services at Schiphol

Abstract

This thesis has the goal to improve the commercial wayfinding at Schiphol. Commercial wayfinding entails tertiary wayfinding activities, which are not related to the travel process (shopping, eating/drinking, relaxing), whereas functional wayfinding gives information about passenger activities related to the airport process. Individuals can find satisfaction and enjoyment from the (commercial) wayfinding activity itself, which is referred to as recreational wayfinding (Fewings, 2001). This thesis explores how recreational wayfinding can enhance the passenger’s experience during their waiting time at the airport: Passengers at Schiphol seek pastime to fill their waiting time before their flight departs. They are looking for activities to do in the lounges, but mostly visit the known locations such as shops and restaurants (current territory). Many passengers just visit the shops only to have something to do and to counteract the boredom, without the intention to buy anything. However, Schiphol has many other (free) services to offer, which most of the passengers are not aware of (hidden gems). The existence of the commercial services (e.g. Rijksmuseum, Airport Library, Nemo, spa) surprises the passengers and they would like to be notified about their existence and location, so that they can visit them (territory to discover). Currently, the commercial services are not intuitively found, as passengers do not know that they exist. But even when actually searching for the services, the current wayfinding does not suffice and does not easily guide the passenger to the services. The digital wayfinding solutions are user unfriendly, as not all facilities are included, routeplanning is not possible and filtering options are limited. To solve this two-pronged problem, an integrated concept for wayfinding and awareness has been developed. A locative audio tour which leads the passengers along hidden gems in lounge 2 has been developed. Passengers experienced the audio tour as calming, explorative and eye opening. To raise awareness among passengers about this audio tour, a concept for awareness was created and tested.