Navigating large virtual spaces (original) (raw)
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Investigating Wayfinding Using Virtual Environments
Wayfinding is the spatial knowledge about one's current location, destination, and the spatial relation between them. Wayfinding problems threaten people's sense of well-being, and cause loss of time and money. Designers and planners can improve wayfinding when they understand how physical environmental factors affect people's wayfinding performance. This study explores the effect of personal and physical environmental characteristics on wayfinding performance. The personal characteristics include gender, age, and familiarity. The physical environmental characteristics include plan layout complexity, physical differentiation and its components vertical and horizontal differentiation.
Spatial Orientation and Wayfinding
2002
* For example, a virtual environment that could be used to train a person to effectively navigate in a generic city would probably have little impact on that person's ability to navigate in a generic forest.
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 1999
This paper proposes a theoretical model of wayfinding that can be used to guide the design of navigational aiding in virtual environments. Based on an evaluation of wayfinding studies in natural environments, this model divides the wayfinding process into three main subprocesses: cognitive mapping, wayfinding plan development, and physical movement or navigation through an environment. While this general subdivision has been proposed before, the current model further delineates the wayfinding process, including the distinct influences of spatial information, spatial orientation, and spatial knowledge. The influences of experience, abilities, search strategies, motivation, and environmental layout on the wayfinding process are also considered. With this specification of the wayfinding process, a taxonomy of navigational tools is then proposed that can be used to systematically aid the specified wayfinding subprocesses. If effectively applied to the design of a virtual environment, th...
Spatial Orientation, Wayfinding, and Representation
Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2014
* For example, a virtual environment that could be used to train a person to effectively navigate in a generic city would probably have little impact on that person's ability to navigate in a generic forest.
DOI 10.3758/s13428-011-0158-9 Wayfinding: The effects of large displays and 3-D perception
2011
Large displays and stereopsis have been shown to improve performance in several virtual navigation tasks. In the present research, we sought to determine whether wayfinding could benefit from these factors. Participants were tested in a virtual town. There were three viewing conditions: a desktop, a large screen, and a large screen on which the virtual environment was viewed in three dimensions (3-D) using polarized glasses. Participants explored the town and had to remember the location of several landmarks. Their memory of the layout of the town was tested by asking them to navigate from one landmark to another, taking the shortest route possible. All groups performed equally well in terms of the distance traveled to target locations. From this result, we concluded that large displays and 3-D perception do not significantly contribute to wayfinding. Thus, experimental paradigms and training programs that utilize wayfinding are as valuable when administered on standard desktops as ...
Wayfinding: The effects of large displays and 3-D perception
Behavior Research Methods, 2012
Large displays and stereopsis have been shown to improve performance in several virtual navigation tasks. In the present research, we sought to determine whether wayfinding could benefit from these factors. Participants were tested in a virtual town. There were three viewing conditions: a desktop, a large screen, and a large screen on which the virtual environment was viewed in three dimensions (3-D) using polarized glasses. Participants explored the town and had to remember the location of several landmarks. Their memory of the layout of the town was tested by asking them to navigate from one landmark to another, taking the shortest route possible. All groups performed equally well in terms of the distance traveled to target locations. From this result, we concluded that large displays and 3-D perception do not significantly contribute to wayfinding. Thus, experimental paradigms and training programs that utilize wayfinding are as valuable when administered on standard desktops as on more sophisticated and costly equipment and do not induce simulator sickness as large displays tend to do.
Designing Space in Virtual Environments for Aiding Wayfinding Behaviour
The aim of this paper is to develop an architectural way of thinking about designing space in a virtual environment, in order to inform human wayfinding behaviour. Several generic objects and spatial elements that a virtual environment consists of are suggested, their spatial significance and formal characteristics are identified and the way that these affect human wayfinding behaviour is also considered.
Effects of Marked Routes in You-are-Here Maps on Navigation Performance and Cognitive Mapping
American Journal of Applied Psychology, 2014
A You-are-here map (YAH map) is a popular way to guide way-searchers (i.e. a person who is navigating in a more or less unknown area to a specific goal) through a designated area. With current technologies, information such as the current position and the optimal route to a chosen destination can be provided easily by marking the route in a map. In our study, we investigated the advantages and disadvantages of such marked routes on navigation performance in desktop virtual environments. 24 participants navigated through a 2 ½ D virtual environment. Navigation performance was measured by navigation time and number of deficiencies. In order to separate effects of cognitive maps from those of navigation performance, participants were asked to draw sketch maps after each trial. The results showed that participants who were shown the optimal route marked in the map beforehand, exhibited impaired knowledge of the environment and impaired navigation performance compared with those viewing the map without the route, independent of route complexity or viewing time of the map. Although map goodness was only slightly better when the route was not marked, the representation of the periphery was rated significantly better. Only route accuracy was better in the condition in which the route was marked. The results are interpreted in such way that basic impairments arise in cognitive mapping when reading a map of the designated area with a marked route, resulting in worse navigation performance.
Wayfinding strategies and behaviors in large virtual worlds
Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems common ground - CHI '96, 1996
People have severe problems wayfinding in large virtual worlds. However, current implementations of virtual worlds provide little support for effective wayfinding. We assert that knowledge about human wayfinding in the physical world can be applied to construct aids for wayfinding in virtual worlds. An experiment was conducted to determine whether people use physical world wayfinding strategies in large virtual worlds. The study measures subject performance on a complex searching task in a number of virtual worlds with differing environmental cues. The results show that subjects in the treatment without any additional cues were often disoriented and had extreme difficulty completing the task. In general, subjects' wayfinding strategies and behaviors were strongly influenced by the environmental cues in ways suggested by the underlying design principles.
Asian Journal of Environment-Behaviour Studies
This paper presents the findings of an ongoing study that explores the potential relationship between visitors' sense of direction and spatial ability in the context of navigation experience on a university campus. A structured questionnaire and tests were administered to 57 visitors who were unfamiliar with the Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam, Selangor campus. The findings suggest that visitors' sense of direction and spatial ability are not significantly correlated. Although previous research has demonstrated a positive correlation between spatial visualization ability and a sense of direction, the relationship between these two factors may be more complex. Effective wayfinding systems require the consideration of visitors' spatial ability, as well as other cognitive processes involved in wayfinding, such as attention, memory, and decision-making of visitors' spatial ability as well as other cognitive processes involved in wayfinding, such as attention, memo...