Lost in space? How better wayfinding can build belonging

Busy offices and bustling cities have more in common than people realise when it comes to finding your way around, according to Tim Fendley, keynote speaker at the upcoming WORKTECH London

In their scale, density and complexity, large office buildings and campuses resemble mini cities. So why not learn from best practice in urban wayfinding to improve experience and build belonging in the workplace?

That’s the message from Tim Fendley, founder and CEO of Applied Information Group, and one of the world’s leading experts on making cities more legible, who will be speaking at the WORKTECH London conference on Wednesday 19 November 2025.

‘People think cities are different from offices in terms of finding your way around, but they’re not,’ Fendley told WORKTECH Academy ahead of his keynote presentation. ‘That’s because people’s brains are the same. We still have Paleolithic emotions despite millions of years of evolution – we still seek a place to feel safe; we still need to know our way back when we go on a journey.

‘Why do like being on a waterfront or high on a hill? That’s because we have a vista in front of us. People working in a labyrinthine internal environment don’t know what’s around the corner. So we need to give them clues, information and guidance.’

Multidisciplinary mix

Tim Fendley has honed key principles and practices in wayfinding and information design through large-scale campus schemes for Princeton University and NASA as well as on global workplace projects with Amazon, Nike and Google.

Applied Information Group, established in 2003, first made its name with Legible London, a comprehensive system of more than 1,500 signs throughout London to encourage walking. Today it has offices in London, San Francisco, Vancouver and South Korea, offering a multidisciplinary mix of urban, transport, graphic and digital design skills.

Tim Fendley believes that urban wayfinding has growing relevance in the hybrid working era because people visit offices less and are therefore less familiar with finding their way around. ‘Constantly getting lost is not good for feeling like you belong,’ he told us. ‘If we can gain a better understanding of how people behave in space, then they’ll be back in the office more often.’

Two modes of thought

His WORKTECH London presentation will focus on the neuroscience behind wayfinding, with special reference to the work of eminent psychologist Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow. Kahneman famously differentiated between two modes of thought: one fast, instinctive and emotional; the other slower, more deliberate and logical.

Fendley believes we should design buildings and spaces ‘so that people know when to think slow and when to think fast – people don’t like to think slow when they’re in a fast, instinctive mode.’

Learn more about the WORKTECH London 2025 programme of speakers here.