ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to establish ways of improving wayfinding in hospitals in Nigeria in response to the rise in trauma cases from insecurity in the country. The approach was explored in North East Nigeria to generate appropriate responses to wayfinding needs during emergencies. North East Nigeria is a geo political zone that has been vulnerable to various scales of terrorist attacks in the country. Two surveys were conducted in four hospitals to explore both existing wayfinding features and relationship between physical features, coded information and social practices in hospitals in North East Nigeria. Results from the first survey, visual survey and interviews, reveal extensive incorporation of wayfinding features with little or no guidelines, resulting to poor design, confusing signs and high dependency on social practices. The second, a questionnaire survey provided data analyzed for means (M) and Relative Agreement Index (RAI) under the three-wayfinding concept of physical features, coded information and social practices. Results reveal that hospital users in the study area employ physical features (M 3.22) and social practices (M 2.58) followed by coded information (M 2.55) for wayfinding in the study area, this implies that users will find it tasking to find their way through complex hospitals in the event of trauma and/or other emergency related cases by relying on poorly designed wayfinding guides. The implication is that architects and other construction professionals need to differentiate finishes, structures and landscape elements, project clear building entrances and sidewalk as well as design colour guides on walls not floor to improve wayfinding in the study area.