The recent years have convinced us that the number of extreme and violent weather phenomena will increase, forcing millions of people to instantly leave their places of residence. Another phase of Russian invasion on Ukraine in February 2022 resulted in launching many temporary refugee centres in Poland. These spaces were created hastily, under time pressure, and therefore their immanent characteristic is ephemerality.
This article studies the design of visual communications inside buildings, in situations of limited material resources and time, for the needs of people under stress and using various languages. The key questions we were trying to answer were: What are the minimum parameters for a visual information to be efficient? What data must be collected before starting the design process?
People involved in designing information for refugee centres in the initial phase of the 2022 crisis say in the interviews that the most important information refers to the specifics of a given space, including its layout, functions, and organisation of traffic. Another important aspect are the languages, in which the users of wayfinding systems communicate. Other parameters are still necessary, but take the second place when the main goal is functionality.
The efficacy of visual communication under such circumstances is based on solutions that are simple and universal – though it must be remembered that in communication design, universality is always relative. Conclusions of the study can be the basis for further parametrisation of design processes in crisis situations.
Keywords: information design, wayfinding, refugee spaces, visual communication systems, ephemeral spaces, multilingual communication, crisis management, parametrisation of design process