Wayfinding video

We helped Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust communicate and implement their wayfinding strategy with an animated explainer video.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust provides acute and specialist healthcare in north west London for around one million people every year. They employ 14,500 people across five hospitals that have a long track record in research, education and influencing care and treatment both nationally and worldwide.

To help patients and visitors navigate their complex hospital sites, they’re implementing their first Trust-wide wayfinding approach. The new wayfinding strategy includes a host of measures to support patients and the public, such as simplifying names and ensuring signage and communications are consistent.

They needed an engaging way to reach staff and spark interest in the changes taking place. The solution also needed to feature some of the new signs in situ, as well as the clutter that was being cleared.

Stylised hospital from Wayfinding explainer video

Wayfinding explainer video - directory old

Bringing the wayfinding strategy to life

We worked with the brand and user experience team to summarise their wayfinding guidelines into an engaging video script that clearly explained what was changing and why. We used simple language and arranged messages into short, digestible chunks to lead staff through the approach and help them understand the strategy.

Next, we developed a clear visual style that put the new signage front and centre. The creative approach also allowed us to easily contrast the new improved approach against the old.

We then brought these contrasts to life by creating an animated explainer video. In addition, we also created a series of shorter videos each focused on a key change. As a result, staff could quickly see and understand how the changes would impact their own departments.

How staff can help Wayfinding strategy - inconsistent terminology

How staff can help Wayfinding strategy - consistent terminology

Helping staff understand the wayfinding strategy

The wayfinding video clearly explains the strategy and what it means for patients, visitors and staff. It also includes clear calls to action for staff to help. For instance, by removing posters and clutter in their areas and ensuring communications are up-to-date.

It’s now been viewed thousands of times and has helped to dramatically boost staff’s understanding of the strategy. In addition, the video has become a useful support tool, saving the programme team dozens of hours when engaging teams across their hospitals.

“We developed a robust set of wayfinding guidelines following a successful pilot, which involved rolling out temporary signage. We wanted to communicate the key components of the strategy to our staff in a simple, digestible and engaging way. Bundle helped us to do that by summarising the guidelines and creating an explainer video that explains the key changes in an easy-to-follow order that follows the user journey through our hospital.

They came up with a graphic style that lent itself to showcasing the actual signs which helped create familiarity and recognition of the signs being rolled out. As we continue to work with departments across our sites and improve our user journey, we direct staff to the video to explain the approach, why we’re doing what we’re doing, and reinforce that our patients’ needs are at the heart of everything we do.”