Nursing Home Wayfinding: A Scoping Review of Direct and Transferable Evidence on Functional Performance, Environmental Experience, and Brand Perception

Age-related changes in vision, cognition, and mobility can make it difficult for older adults to navigate nursing home environments. Effective wayfinding therefore depends not only on spatial configuration and conventional or digital information, but also on recognisable environmental features and the lighting and colour conditions that make these cues perceptible. However, evidence concerning these elements is scattered across several disciplines and has rarely been examined in relation to residents’ broader environmental experiences or perceptions of the institution. This scoping review brings together the relevant literature by examining the scope, research methods, and evaluation approaches of nursing home wayfinding research, with particular attention to lighting and colour. Following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines, the 46 included studies primarily focused on functional outcomes, such as information recognition, navigation performance, and spatial orientation, while systematic investigations of broader environmental experiences, including independence, emotional responses, sense of belonging, and well-being, remained limited. Although some studies have begun to explore the potential relationship between wayfinding design and brand perception, a causal relationship between wayfinding design and brand-related outcomes has not yet been established. The effects of wayfinding design are influenced by multiple environmental design elements. Among these, lighting and colour have mostly been examined through qualitative descriptions, with limited quantitative investigation and insufficient evidence from real nursing home settings. Therefore, this review proposes a conceptual framework linking wayfinding design elements, functional performance, environmental experience, and brand perception. In addition, quantitative evidence on lighting and colour parameters from related fields was synthesized to provide transferable references for wayfinding design in nursing home settings.