Seeing is Believing: How Eye Tracking Informs Wayfinding Design (with Jon Ward)

In this episode of Meet the Waymakers, we’re joined by Jon Ward, Vice President of Global Strategic Sales at Tobii, to explore the psychology of navigation through eye-tracking research. We discuss which visual cues travelers notice or miss, and how stress, fatigue, and split-second instincts shape their decisions.Jon shares findings from research across London Heathrow’s terminals, where observations of real passengers informed ten design rules for clearer, more effective wayfinding. We also discuss why the timing of a message matters as much as its design, how visual clutter competes for attention, and why improving wayfinding can mean removing signs rather than adding more of them.