Colette Jeffrey
Dr Colette Jeffrey is Associate Professor of Wayfinding and Inclusive Design, a design lecturer and post-doc researcher at Birmingham City University. Her PhD explored why people get lost in buildings and the influence of information design and architecture and she is currently writing a book on her new theory for Routledge’s Research in Architecture Series. Colette was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation (FRIN) in 2022 in recognition of her contributions to the design of inclusive human navigation systems, and research on navigator cognition. Before joining academia in 2009, Colette was Inclusive Design Director at Applied Wayfinding and Wayfinding Design Director at Information Design Unit and Brand Union. She has designed wayfinding strategies and systems for over 25 NHS hospitals, the Natural History Museum in London, Tower Bridge, Wembley Arena, Heathrow Airport and shopping centres in Dublin and Dubai. She advised LOCOG on the inclusivity of the wayfinding system at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. She was academic lead at Birmingham Institute of Fashion and Creative Arts (BIFCA) in Wuhan China for four years and has also taught many times in Hong Kong. Last year her wayfinding consultancy project for Birmingham Children’s Hospital was recognised as ‘Most Impactful Consultancy’ in the Knowledge Exchange awards at BCU and she is currently researching wayfinding design in today’s hospitals having co-written the official NHS Wayfinding guidance in 1999. She is supervising two international PhD students, one exploring wayfinding information for city cyclists in Lisbon and one researching bi-lingual advertising design in Bahrain. Her talk will share her new doctoral theories on waylosing and wayfinding, and she will discuss the future of inclusive wayfinding design for today’s diverse navigators.
