The majority of articles that I have authored on this site cover development, features and functions of interactive wayfinding. I am dedicating my next few posts to the applications of interactive wayfinding in a business setting.
Wayfinding is not only beneficial to visitors of the location in which it is employed, but can be fruitful in terms of revenue as well. The most obvious profit scenario is when an IT company or digital signage company subscribes to a service such as Wayfinding Pro, and designs and develops a wayfinding app for a client of their own. For those that are not familiar with Wayfinding Pro, it is a service that provides its subscribers with the tools to plot directions and build a wayfinding application. As typical median sized projects can run in excess of $30,000 dollars, services such as WFP enable members to build the same projects for as little as $50 monthly.
But what are the less obvious avenues for turning a profit on interactive wayfinding? I have listed a few below, categorized by market.
Hardware (Computer) Manufacturers:
Companies like Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba and larger scale kiosk manufacturers and distributors will find this beneficial for two reasons. The first being that through Wayfinding Pro’s Manufacturer program, companies such as the ones listed can offer a trial of WFP on all of their outgoing machines. This is of course, at no cost to the manufacturer. This may seem like free advertising for Wayfinding Pro, but it gives the manu another default program to offer on their machine. The second reason is the potential revenue generator. With this program going out on the distributors machines, the more clients that sign up for wayfinding Pro, the greater the demand for new kiosks will be. Generating new business for Wayfinding Pro goes hand in hand with computer and kiosk companies receiving new orders. With the Manu program, Wayfinding Pro is selecting a few large scale companies to be preferred, and offer WFP free as a demo on outgoing machines. In return, Wayfinding Pro refers all hardware related business to these companies.
Digital Signage Companies:
Digital Signage is one of the fastest growing industries in the IT world. Wayfinding in its essence can be considered digital signage, and has many similar applications. By joining Wayfinding Pro, digital signage cos can offer wayfinding as an additional service, integrated into their existing platforms. With Wayfinding Pro being so inexpensive, and so easy to build a wayfinding program with, there is huge potential for additional revenue.
IT Companies / Direct Clients:
For the companies and clients that will offer wayfinding directly at their location; advertising can be integrated right into the interface of the wayfinding app. This is somewhat outside of Wayfinding Pro, but simple nonetheless. But implementing interactive ads, or static ads, clients can sell the ad space to relevant businesses and services for an additional revenue generator.
The suggestions above are general, and ones that I came up with after a short brainstorming session. With the industries brightest minds showing interest in wayfinding and joining the growing list of users and providers, there is no limit to the potential wayfinding has as a service and as a product.
Interactive Wayfinding 