‘Leer’, Spanish for ‘read’, expresses the goal of the on-street wayfinding system developed by Applied for the city of Madrid. The Leer Madrid project empowers visitors and residents to ‘read’ the environment and create their own story travelling around the city.

Developed alongside a local team involving Avanti Studio, Paisaje Transversal, Urban Networks and Dimas García, Applied’s cohesive system delivers information clearly via maps and signs. It aims to improve the experience of navigating throughout the city, while highlighting Madrid’s rich cultural and architectural gems. 

The Ayuntamiento de Madrid (City Council of Madrid) recently commissioned an independent evaluation of system prototypes installed in the Atocha and Plaza de España areas. The study reveals how readable the signs are and identifies where improvements could be made. 

Understanding the impact

We always push for our projects to undergo evaluation and user testing throughout the design and development process. This is crucial to uncover how designs perform in real-world environments and amongst diverse audiences. No matter how often projects go through this, it never takes away from how nerve racking it can be to have work assessed, as the public won’t hold back from telling you the truth about what they think! Independent studies are directed towards uncovering issues and areas for improvement, which is incredibly useful to ensure systems are effective and truly serve those they are designed for, but tense until results are revealed. 

The key objectives of the Leer Madrid evaluation were:

• To identify the most common user profiles.
• To evaluate the extent to which the system is used.
• To analyse user interaction with design elements and the system as a whole, to better understand user experience and accessibility.

Over 11.5 days researchers spent 91 hours observing, documenting that 2099 consultations of the signs took place during this time. 4349 people were involved in these consultations and 100 in-depth interviews were undertaken with these users. 

Key findings include:

• 96% of users said the Leer Madrid system improved their pedestrian experience.
• 97% encountered no difficulties using the system.
• 51% of people surveyed were looking for a specific place, 25% were seeking general information, 7% were people trying to find their way around the city, and another 7% were not looking for anything in particular, but engaging with the system out of curiosity.

Assessing legibility for all

Madrid welcomed a record 11.2 million visitors in 2024, a 5.5% increase from 2023 [1]. The original Leer Madrid masterplan emphasised that, to best serve a diverse city with increasing numbers of international tourists, and a resident population projected to be 24% over the age of 65 by 2030, the system must be intuitive and accessible regardless of the user’s background, age, language, or physical or cognitive abilities [2].

A control group of people with cognitive impairments resulting from acquired brain injury (ABI) participated in the study. They supported researchers evaluating the accessibility of the system in line with the masterplan requirement. This group was chosen to reflect the spectrum of abilities users of the Leer Madrid system may have, as the possible consequences of brain injury include physical-sensory, cognitive and emotional impacts, which affect memory, concentration, visual perception, information processing and communication. All of these are key aspects affecting urban navigation.

The study found the Leer Madrid system was easy to use for people with cognitive impairments. Participants reported they were able to identify destinations and navigate to them using the maps and signs. Some symbols and information were flagged for refinement in future iterations to further align designs with the needs of users and the city environment.

The next chapter …

We want to make it easier to understand the streets of Madrid. When people can read their surroundings it benefits them, their communities and the city. With Leer Madrid prototypes proven to be successful in improving the experience of navigating on foot there is hope that the system can support small, but meaningful, behaviour change. 

Visualising key destinations within a ten minute walk encourages people to venture beyond the familiar. This builds confidence, and drives economic and social benefits. Tourists may stroll more streets and encounter shops or cafés they patronise; residents may develop new local connections or choose to walk instead of drive. These individual actions, multiplied by millions of journeys, yield significant benefits.

Informed by the evaluation’s findings, refinements to the system will now be made in preparation for city-wide rollout by the Ayuntamiento de Madrid.