What challenges do we solve?

Our clients come to Mima to work through a range of problems including:

• Our customers find our space confusing and, as a consequence, find their experience of visiting unsatisfactory
• We find that our visitors don't explore all of our spaces/facilities/exhibitions but we don't understand why
• We want to make our wayfinding system more adaptive by introducing technology but don't know the best solutions
• How can we best showcase our brand identity but still have a wayfinding design that works for our guests?
• We want to create a space that inclusive but are worried customers with disabilities won't have the same experience

By working in close collaboration with our clients, their design partners and the end user, we encourage co-design within our process, allowing us to develop wayfinding and interpretive solutions that work with the architecture, landscape, digital information, landmarks and other visual cues such as lighting and interaction with staff, as a cohesive, well-planned system. 

Our outputs create a carefully crafted solution that works harmoniously with the visual language of our clients' brands and the design requirements of the environment and deliver the functional need to help people find their way, whilst delivering an element of education and discovery.

We've tackled these problems for transport clients including High Speed 2 (HS2), Network Rail, Skyports, Red Sea Airport, Madinah Airport and London Gatwick. We also helped destinations improve visitor experience with clients including Royal Museums Greenwich, Tate, Motorsport Hotel Complex (Qiddiya), At Turaif (DGDA) Saudi Downtown Company and Madinah Development Authority.

Why work with us?

Our working approach has a focus on two key areas, Strategy and Design. 

We see the strategy as being a key component of the vision to help users find spaces and moments within them where they can pause, dwell, and make a connection to your site, its content and its brand. Wayfinding and Interpretation must help visitors find their way both from a navigational perspective but also in their exploration and discovery of your environment. The strategy captures how the system needs to blend static signage with digital covering displays, kiosks, totems and apps. Our strategy defines the principles for naming, content hierarchy, use of language (including tone of voice) and pictograms, product types, updatability, the use of landmarks, response to the architecture and ways to help visitors simplify spaces with methods such as zoning, colour coding and numerical sequencing. By defining your strategy, we can create user-centred and inclusive design solutions that have been derived from real-world needs and wants, allowing us to avoid design by assumption.

In our creative design work, we look at how we can deliver the functional, information design needs identified in the strategy and blend this with interpreting the client brand, responding to the architecture and place to produce aesthetically pleasing signage, supergraphics and maps. The design process allows us to create consistent and creative wayfinding that reinforces the client’s brand identity and adds beauty and character to the space. We have a process of concept design development that allows our client teams to iterate with us through the ideas, using renders, drawings and product prototypes.  We also use augmented and virtual reality to help visualise the design concepts in situ. 

For us, good wayfinding design is a fundamental part of your visitor/guest/passenger experience that helps people find their way but also enriches their journey through thoughtful design, technology, and artistic expression.