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Wayfinding refers to the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place.

Wayfinding is often used to refer to traditional navigation methods used by indigenous peoples. In more modern times, wayfinding is used in the context of architecture to refer to the user experience of orientation and choosing a path within the built environment, and it also refers to the set of architectural and/or design elements that aids orientation.

Researcher Kevin Lynch coined the term in his 1960 book "Image of the City". In 1984 environmental psychologist Romedi Passini published the full-length "Wayfinding in Architecture" and expanded the concept to include signage and other graphic communication, clues inherent in the building's spatial grammar, logical space planning, audible communication, tactile elements, and provision for special-needs users.

Historically, wayfinding refers to the techniques used by travelers over land and sea to find relatively unmarked and often mislabeled routes. These include but are not limited to dead reckoning, map and compass, astronomical positioning and, more recently, global positioning.

• Outdoor education

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The definitive wayfinding text, which deals with both architecture and signage, is "Wayfinding: People, Signs and Architecture," written by Paul Arthur and Romedi Passini. In 2005, Focus Strategic Communications issued a reprint to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the book, as well as to honor Paul Arthur, who died in 2001. Paul Arthur was one of the founders of the Society of Environmental Graphic Designers, and considered by many to be the designer who brought the common use of pictograms to these shores. A book he had worked on for years, but was unable to publish before his death, "Wayfinding, Pictographic Systems. Nonverbal, Universal" has also been published by Focus Strategic Communications.

This term is also used in reference to parking management strategies that help drivers find parking garages.