Communication, orientation and wayfinding aboard great ships: towards an integrated and user-centred system.

Being on board a great ship, like a ferry or a cruise vessel, can be perceived as a disorienting experience, especially if lived for the first time. The rich outfitting of the common areas, the lighting, the very similar serving spaces such as hallways, stairways and secondary elevators, along with being on a vehicle in its turn moving in the space and the need of understanding complex routes from one point to another; all these factors may result confusing for people, making them feeling a frustrating sense of “not being able to find the way” to reach their destination. They often are inconveniences easy to be solve in a short time, once the passenger gets acquainted with the new environment; nonetheless, in some circumstances, these difficulties can affect the enjoyment of the trip, contributing to lower the satisfaction or, even, putting at risk comfort and safety perception of the travelers. The paper aims to present the premises of a more extended, ongoing research, that takes the cue from observing resources and critical issues of the ways of communication and information currently the most used in these contexts, in order to outline a rigorous method useful for the developers in designing new strategies and techniques to apply to wayfinding and way showing aboard medium-sized and large vessels.