The chance to create a welcoming user experience
User experience in hospitals provides a unique challenge for wayfinding design. That’s because sterile environments have strict requirements for interiors and signage – they must be functional, clean, and easy to interpret. This can often result in cold and stark spaces.
What HMS Group envisioned for the Mirdif Private Hospital was a comforting, easy-to-navigate environment for patients and medical professionals alike. So we helped to facilitate a warm and welcoming atmosphere through wayfinding and creative design.
Using our expertise and understanding of the built environment, we supported HMS Group to set a new hospital wayfinding benchmark.
A strategy and design-focused approach
Our work began with a clear definition of the strategy and design objectives for a customised wayfinding solution at the hospital. Rooted in creative design and relevant benchmarking, our aim was to strike the right balance between functionality and friendliness.
Our main focus was to take an environment that can be stressful and overwhelming for patients and visitors, and add detailed touches, clear designs, and specific colours to create a soothing effect, and bring out a feeling of calm.
Using our extensive knowledge of art – digital installations and 2D super graphics – we created a space that promotes healing. It also offers a calm and imaginative experience for visitors – especially for young patients and their families.
The design direction took its cue from the wayfinding sign family of the HMS Group brand, inspired by the warmth of gold and charcoal material finishes. These colours echo the high standards of medical expertise provided by doctors, nurses, and other hospital staff.
For the external façade and primary identification signage, we applied the HMS brand mark in its full colour application and aligned all the external directional wayfinding to the interior sign family. In addition, the below-grade parking strategy included a unique colour palette and numbering system, making parking demarcation simple and intuitive for anyone using the facility.
Functional and coordinated for a better patient experience
Hospitals can be cold and clinical places. So we developed a unique wayfinding design to reflect the standards you might expect from a 5-star hotel. We used clear, concise signage and warm colour tones to bring cohesion and fluidity throughout the different departments inside the hospital. Each sign type was meticulously designed, produced with care, and installed with precision to achieve its purpose.
Our work at Mirdif demonstrates that environments built for function can be uplifted through thoughtful strategy, empathetic design, and beautiful materials, enhancing peoples’ experience and sense of place. We delivered a comprehensive wayfinding system for Mirdif Private Hospital that has become a clinic and hospital wayfinding benchmark.
