As the importance of wayfinding grows in the signage industry, one thing is clear: assumptions and best practices alone are no longer enough. Today, organisations need evidence that their spaces truly work, not just in theory, but for real people using them every day.

At Modulex, Verifind, an eye-tracking innovation, was developed to bring that confidence to the signage industry, transforming wayfinding from assumption-based design into an evidence-driven approach grounded in real human behaviour.

Helping shape this approach are members of the Verifind team at Modulex, including Ethan Laronde, Marketing & Sales Support Specialist for U.S. East & Canada, and Maria Saad, Content & Digital Marketing Manager. Through their work, Verifind is helping bridge the gap between how wayfinding is intended to function and how it is truly experienced in the built environment.

From Design Intent to Real-World Experience

Wayfinding systems are often designed with care, precision, and deep knowledge. Yet even the most thoughtfully designed systems can behave differently once real people interact with them.

“The wayfinding and signage industry has traditionally relied heavily on experience, best practices, and design intent,” explains Maria. “And we realised there wasn’t always a consistent way to validate performance.”

Verifind addresses this gap by connecting design intent with actual user experience in the built environment. By focusing on real human behaviour, it ensures that wayfinding decisions are grounded not in assumptions, but in evidence.

Seeing Spaces Through the Visitor’s Eyes

At its core, Verifind shifts perspective, from the designer to the user. “For me, Verifind is like stepping into your visitor’s journey,” says Maria. “It reveals how their journey through your space goes, the points of confusion, hesitation, and everything in between.”

This human-centric approach is what makes Verifind different. While many associate it primarily with analytical tools like eye-tracking, its value goes far beyond that. “It’s not just about what people see,” explains Ethan. “It’s about understanding why they make the decisions they do and where they run into confusion.”

Rather than focusing solely on visibility, Verifind captures emotional experience and cognitive effort, two factors that are often overlooked but essential to successful user experience.

Measuring What Matters in Wayfinding

To transform observation into actionable insight, Verifind focuses on three key performance indicators that define the wayfinding experience.

• The first is Signage Attention, understanding which signs are noticed and which are missed.
• The second is Visitor Experience & Effort, capturing the reasoning behind decisions and moments of hesitation.
• The third is Navigational Efficiency, measuring how long it takes users to reach their destination.

“These KPIs give decision-makers a complete picture of what’s working and what isn’t,” Ethan explains. “The combination of eye-tracking, participant feedback, and these insights allows teams to make confident decisions before moving into production.”

This ability to validate and refine early ensures that wayfinding systems are not only well-designed but also effective in practice.

Supporting Expertise, Not Replacing It

One of the most important aspects of Verifind is its role as a complementary tool, not a substitute for expertise. “Many people think Verifind replaces wayfinding consultants,” Ethan notes. “But it’s actually the opposite. It supports decision-makers and experts, giving them more confidence to improve the user experience.”

Maria echoes this perspective: “Verifind doesn’t design the system. It validates and improves how it performs in the real world.”

By combining professional expertise with measurable insights, Verifind enables more informed, collaborative decision-making and brings clarity to complex environments.

The Power of Real Data

An imperative element of Verifind’s effectiveness lies in the people who participate in its studies. “The most important part is getting participants,” says Ethan. “The more users you can involve, the stronger your data becomes.”

A diverse and larger sample size allows patterns to emerge, ensuring that findings reflect real user experiences across different audiences. This strengthens the reliability of insights and supports more confident design decisions.

Removing Uncertainty, Adding Confidence

Ultimately, Verifind was created to simplify the wayfinding process. “It wasn’t created as an extra step or to add complexity,” Maria explains. “It was created to remove uncertainty and add confidence and clarity to the process.”

By validating how people truly move through spaces, Verifind empowers designers, consultants, and clients to move forward with confidence. Decisions are no longer based solely on expectation; they are informed by evidence.

“And when decisions are evidence-based,” Maria adds, “wayfinding becomes clearer, spaces work better, and people benefit from a better experience.”

A Better Journey for Every Visitor

Today, wayfinding isn’t just about getting from point A to point B, it’s about creating intuitive, stress-free experiences. Verifind ensures that these experiences are not left to chance.

By bringing human behaviour, measurable data, and expert insight together, it transforms wayfinding from an assumption-driven process into a validated, performance-based strategy, helping spaces work better for everyone who uses them.