Carparks as Experience Touchpoints: Improving Navigation, Safety & Wayfinding

They’re where the experience begins and ends, but carparks are often overlooked. Treated as a practical necessity, not part of the designed experience. When that happens, people arrive frustrated, leave disoriented, and the space in between doesn’t stand a chance.

The carpark is part of the journey

People don’t arrive at your building. They arrive at your carpark. Navigation starts the moment they approach the site, well before they walk through the front door. If that first step causes confusion or delay, the whole experience gets harder.

Common issues we uncover

• No safe or clear route from car to entrance

• Confusing naming for levels, zones, or areas

• No memory cues to help people find their car later

• Low lighting, poor visibility, illegible signs

• Multiple entry points with no sense of orientation

  
  

These kinds of issues point to something simple: the user journey wasn’t planned with care.

Carpark wayfinding needs a strategy

The best carpark wayfinding systems follow real behaviour, where people look, how they move, and what helps them feel oriented from the start:

• What do people notice as they arrive?

• Where do they hesitate?

• How do they orient themselves after parking?

• What helps them find their way back later?

  
  

We use observation, user testing, and on-site experience mapping to answer these questions early, before any lines are painted or signs installed.

Good design lowers stress

Carparks are high-pressure environments. People might be running late, juggling bags or kids, or managing reduced mobility. Clear layouts, visible zones, predictable pathways, and well-placed information all help make things easier, faster, safer.

Don’t ignore the carpark. Fix it.

At Humanics Collective, we treat the carpark as a designed part of the experience. For many users, it’s your real front door.

Great places start with great arrivals. And great arrivals start in the carpark.