Augmenting pedestrian navigation systems with context-aware display of POIs

Treball de Final de Màster Universitari Erasmus Mundus en Tecnologia Geoespacial (Pla de 2013). Codi: SIW013. Curs acadèmic 2016-2017Nowadays, pedestrian often relies on automated navigation systems to find their way in an unfamiliar environment at the expense of increasingly degrading one’s spatial knowledge and surrounding environment interaction. The reason for this is that because pedestrians are not required to solve spatial tasks along the route, they just depend on the abilities of the system, despite the fact that mental maps are built up from observations gathered during travel and direct interaction with the environment. This research investigated the augmentation of Google Maps turn-by-turn (TbT) pedestrian navigation system with context-aware visualization of the point of interests (POIs) along the path to enhance surrounding environment interaction and spatial knowledge of pedestrian. We conducted an experiment with six participant’s using a prototype application with and without dynamic visualization of POIs to evaluate its effect on participant’s spatial knowledge and interaction with the surrounding environment. Results suggested that participant’s using a prototype application augmented with a context-aware display of POIs showed better spatial iii knowledge and surrounding environment interaction compared to participant’s who use a prototype application without context-aware display of POIs

A survey of usability issues in mobile map-based systems

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial TechnologiesHow geospatial information could be represented in map or other forms of communication to display in mobile phones to convey spatial knowledge to users more effective and efficient with less ambiguity? This triggering question stems from the usability problems available in mobile map-based systems, that made using mobile navigation services and applications for pedestrians, a tedious and complicated task which is rather confusing to be helpful. Problems such as; losing the spatial overview of the area, overload of information in small screens of mobile phones, visibility issue of off-screen entities, weaknesses in orienting users with real environment, too much engagement of users with interface which causes environment distraction and so on. There are a lot of solutions have proposed to mitigate these available issues in mobile map-based systems, but each one has its pros and cons that is not complete enough to tackle above mentioned issues alone, and most of the time a combination of them is proposing. We tried with systematic literature review (SLR) that is more reliable, replicable and valid [1], find the most frequently applied usability evaluation method in the available studies to detect the usability issues in mobile map-based systems (MMSs), then find the most frequently usability issues that detected among the reviewed literatures and how to categorize them, in what contexts they mostly happened and what solutions proposed so far to resolve them. We operated tree iterations of systematic literature review (SLR) with totally 8667 identified publications (within 6 relevant databases and a search engine with priority of 4 most prominent and relevant journals and conferences in the field of mobile HCI and location based services), that 196 one of them included in first screening1, were thoroughly read in order to check with predefined inclusion criteria and overall, 56 papers (between those 196 papers) that qualified with our well-defined and updated inclusion criteria properties read in-depth at least two times to extract the data. In the first iteration 25 papers have reviewed and relevant data with considering our research questions has extracted and reflected in the first iteration table. In the second iteration, 24 papers which had adjusted inclusion criteria parameters have included to data extraction for filling the updated table. The last iteration according to the scarcity of publications in this realm and time limitation, has operated only with 7 literatures and relevant data extracted to fill in the last updated table. Results of the SLR showed the most frequently usability evaluation method was “Questionnaire” to achieve effectiveness and efficiency of the system, and the most frequently usability issue that detected within available literatures was “losing the spatial overview” which followed by “too much zooming and panning operations by users” that stems from the same problem; small screen size of mobile devices. We categorized the issues into two main groups of technological and spatial issues, which we only here focused on the usability issues relevant to map interfaces in mobile phones (spatial issues), not the technological problems relevant to the server or the hardware perspective (sensors, connectivity, battery drainage, GPS accuracy etc.). We have noticed the most frequently usability issue has happened in the mobile phone with average screen size of 3.83 inches, 87% of the cases in the laboratory environment, with users (not experts) with average age of 26 years old that 64.2% of them had relevant knowledge (GI2 knowledge). The low amount of field-based studies highlights the lack of considering real context in available case studies that in usability evaluation of location based mobile systems is highly important. Some traditional solutions have proposed to address the most frequently occurred usability problem in mobile map-based systems such as the techniques for visualizing the off-screen objects (such as Overview&Detail, Scaled Arrows, Wedge etc.) and some techniques for enhancing the zoom and pan operations (such as vario-scale maps, semi-automatic zooming (SAZ), tilt zooming, content zooming, anchored zoom etc.) that none of them were not completely suitable enough to be applied in these systems and the most famous systems such as Google Maps still working without taking advantage of such approaches, techniques and widgets, with a lot of usability issues

Taking the lab on the road and bringing the road to the lab: On using mixed-methods and virtual reality to study a location-based task

In earlier work, a lab and field study were employed to evaluate participants who used a digital map to complete a surveying task. The lab incorporated photos to simulate various scenarios within the task environment. It had a high degree of experimental control, strengths in quantitative data collection, and it could be easily replicated. Whereas the field study took place in the task’s natural setting (a neighborhood); it afforded participants to navigate the environment on foot, which allowed for more ecologically valid task outcomes and rich qualitative data collection. The strengths of the lab method were desired, but the rich context and the ecological validity of the field study proved to be critical to outcomes. In this research, three follow-up experiments were conducted. The first two field experiments explored differences in task outcomes between fieldworkers with high spatial visualization ability and low spatial visualization ability. Participants completed a series of surveying tasks using paper maps while navigating a neighborhood. The results indicated that task performance outcomes and behavior could be linked to participants\u27 spatial visualization ability, their map usage patterns, and environmental factors. In the third experiment, a VR lab was used to replicate a field experiment on the task as it was performed by digital map users. An approach is highlighted to recreate the task environment—a neighborhood that was large in extent—using an immersive virtual environment (IVE). Outcomes from the field are compared to those of the VR lab, which enabled participants to move through the simulated neighborhood using a hands-free interface. Using this approach, strengths of the lab method (i.e., its experimental control) are combined with the ecological validity afforded to natural setting research. The results indicate that real-world behaviors observed in the field—and some of the expected task performance outcomes—were also evident in the VR lab. Many of the findings corroborate those of the two prior field experiments. Comparisons made across experiments show that task outcomes were linked to participants’ spatial visualization ability, their workflows, the street layout of the neighborhood, as well as the type of map used (i.e., paper vs. digital) and the styles of map use. This methodology can be applied—in the field and in lab settings—to evaluate location-based tasks that involve pedestrian navigation and map use; it can also be used to assess and validate VR labs that are designed to replicate mobile HCI field studies by simulating real-world task environments