The Usher Building at Edinburgh BioQuarter was conceived as a world-class hub for data-driven health and social care research bringing together academics, clinicians, researchers, industry partners and the public within a highly complex workplace environment.

Our role focused on developing a wayfinding and environmental graphics strategy that would support intuitive movement, reduce cognitive load and create a calmer, more legible experience throughout the building. Rather than treating signage as a purely functional layer, the approach considered how navigation, reassurance and spatial understanding contribute to wellbeing and everyday confidence within complex environments.

Alongside the rollout of the University of Edinburgh’s core signage standards, we developed a series of bespoke environmental graphic and feature signage interventions that responded directly to the architectural concept and the building’s wider ambition around health, wellbeing and human-centred research. These moments helped establish a stronger sense of identity and place within the wider University estate while reinforcing clarity, orientation and emotional ease for users moving through the building.

The wayfinding strategy was carefully integrated into the spatial experience of the interior, supporting seamless transitions between public areas, collaborative environments and focused research spaces. Hierarchies, sightlines, graphic language and material integration were designed to feel welcoming and intuitive for a broad user group from researchers and clinicians to first-time visitors and public-facing partners.

Feature environmental graphics were used not only to aid orientation, but to reinforce the building’s unique identity and wider narrative around light, movement, health and human connection. The result is a cohesive wayfinding and placemaking system that enhances both usability and atmosphere, helping the building feel calm, accessible and easy to navigate from day one.

The Usher Building demonstrates how experience-led wayfinding can move beyond signage alone, becoming part of a connected spatial experience designed around human behaviour, emotional comfort and operational clarity.