Visual Cues
Exploring how visual signals shape the way walkers interpret, navigate, and experience their environments.
Exploring how visual signals shape the way walkers interpret, navigate, and experience their environments.
Visual cues are central to the practice of walking. They are the signs, symbols, colours, landmarks, and patterns in the environment that help walkers make sense of where they are and where to go. Beyond functional navigation, visual cues also enrich experience: they signal safety, create atmosphere, and embed cultural meaning in place. In walking systems, designing with visual cues means recognising the power of visual perception not just as a source of information, but as a way of shaping behaviour and mood.
Unlike vehicle navigation, where attention is directed mainly to traffic flows and signage, pedestrian navigation involves constant interpretation of smaller-scale cues: kerb markings, pavement textures, benches, greenery, murals, and lighting. Capturing and representing these signals digitally requires sensitivity to detail, context, and diversity of visual literacy across cultures and communities.
Visual cues in walking environments range from the formal to the informal. Formal cues include regulated signage, road markings, and standardised wayfinding boards. Informal cues emerge from the lived environment: shopfronts, graffiti, street furniture, or even the presence of other pedestrians. Both forms influence route choice, perception of safety, and sense of orientation.
For example, a brightly lit crossing offers reassurance at night, while a tree-lined avenue signals shade and comfort. Painted trail markers, heritage plaques, and even temporary event banners act as orientation anchors, enriching walking with layers of meaning and memory. Systems that capture and represent such cues can offer walkers richer guidance than abstract geometry alone.
Walking systems can harness visual cues in multiple ways. At the simplest level, interfaces can highlight landmarks or colour-code routes to reflect qualities such as safety, greenery, or cultural interest. More advanced approaches incorporate visual data into routing algorithms: weighting paths by lighting, visibility, or the presence of murals and public art. Augmented reality systems can overlay cues directly into the walking environment, providing live annotations and adaptive prompts.
However, over-reliance on visual cues can exclude some users. Systems must combine visual signals with multimodal outputs (audio, haptic) and ensure high-contrast, accessible design for those with low vision. Equally, cultural interpretation of cues differs: colours, symbols, or even graffiti may carry different meanings across communities. Ethical use of visual cues requires attentiveness to inclusivity and context sensitivity.
Capturing visual cues systematically is difficult. Datasets often lack micro-scale features like signage or artwork. Computer vision and street imagery can help extract cues such as greenery or lighting, but they risk missing cultural and social signals that are best gathered through participatory mapping. Opportunities lie in blending top-down datasets with bottom-up contributions, allowing communities to highlight the cues they find meaningful.
Future walking systems could treat visual cues not just as data points but as design resources, enabling routes that feel safer, more comfortable, or more inspiring. By embedding visual richness into digital infrastructures, systems can move closer to representing the embodied, aesthetic dimensions of walking.