Personal Wayfinding Assistance

We are traveling many different routes every day. In familiar environments it is easy for us to find our ways. We know our way from bedroom to kitchen, from home to work, from parking place to office, and back home at the end of the working day. We have learned these routes in the past and are now able to find our destination without having to think about it. As soon as we want to find a place beyond the demarcations of our mental map, we need help. In some cases we ask our friends to explain us the way, in other cases we use a map to find out about the place. Mobile phones are increasingly equipped with wayfinding assistance. These devices are usually at hand because they are handy and small, which enables us to get wayfinding assistance everywhere where we need it. While the small size of mobile phones makes them handy, it is a disadvantage for displaying maps. Geographic information requires space to be visualized in order to be understandable. Typically, not all information displayed in maps is necessary. An example are walking ways in parks for car drivers, they are they are usually no relevant route options. By not displaying irrelevant information, it is possible to compress the map without losing important information. To reduce information purposefully, we need information about the user, the task at hand, and the environment it is embedded in. In this cumulative dissertation, I describe an approach that utilizes the prior knowledge of the user to adapt maps to the to the limited display options of mobile devices with small displays. I focus on central questions that occur during wayfinding and relate them to the knowledge of the user. This enables the generation of personal and context-specific wayfinding assistance in the form of maps which are optimized for small displays. To achieve personalized assistance, I present algorithmic methods to derive spatial user profiles from trajectory data. The individual profiles contain information about the places users regularly visit, as well as the traveled routes between them. By means of these profiles it is possible to generate personalized maps for partially familiar environments. Only the unfamiliar parts of the environment are presented in detail, the familiar parts are highly simplified. This bears great potential to minimize the maps, while at the same time preserving the understandability by including personally meaningful places as references. To ensure the understandability of personalized maps, we have to make sure that the names of the places are adapted to users. In this thesis, we study the naming of places and analyze the potential to automatically select and generate place names. However, personalized maps only work for environments the users are partially familiar with. If users need assistance for unfamiliar environments, they require complete information. In this thesis, I further present approaches to support uses in typical situations which can occur during wayfinding. I present solutions to communicate context information and survey knowledge along the route, as well as methods to support self-localization in case orientation is lost

Familiarity factors of street features in pedestrian wayfindings

From an origin point to a destination point, good wayfinding process requires familiar recognition on the street environment. However, the unclear reasons of identifying street features to determine a route to the destination influences a pedestrian to select the wrong turn, walk in longer distance, and lost his direction. This paper aims to identify the factors that influence pedestrian familiarity, familiar or unfamiliar, in people wayfinding. Two hundred questionnaires were collected in Teluk Intan, Perak, Malaysia. Quotations from 30 interviews were used to triangulate the findings. Factor analysis available in IBM SPSS version 21 was used in exploring the familiarity factors for wayfinding. The finding suggests three factors influenced pedestrian to familiar with the street environment, which the factors are characteristic, attraction, and interest of street features. While, the duplication design of street features, error in defining the position of street features and form similarity of street features influence pedestrian to become unfamiliar with the street environment. This paper implies that the physical form of street features gives impact to pedestrian familiarity. Consideration of the three factors that influence pedestrian to familiar with the environment can improve how pedestrian experience in street network especially wayfinding

Multimodal interactions in insect navigation

Animals travelling through the world receive input from multiple sensory modalities that could be important for the guidance of their journeys. Given the availability of a rich array of cues, from idiothetic information to input from sky compasses and visual information through to olfactory and other cues (e.g. gustatory, magnetic, anemotactic or thermal) it is no surprise to see multimodality in most aspects of navigation. In this review, we present the current knowledge of multimodal cue use during orientation and navigation in insects. Multimodal cue use is adapted to a species’ sensory ecology and shapes navigation behaviour both during the learning of environmental cues and when performing complex foraging journeys. The simultaneous use of multiple cues is beneficial because it provides redundant navigational information, and in general, multimodality increases robustness, accuracy and overall foraging success. We use examples from sensorimotor behaviours in mosquitoes and flies as well as from large scale navigation in ants, bees and insects that migrate seasonally over large distances, asking at each stage how multiple cues are combined behaviourally and what insects gain from using different modalities

Capturing cultural differences between UK and Malaysian drivers to inform the design of in-vehicle navigation systems

Attending to cultural diversity is important for products and technology intended for global placement, such as automobiles, yet many products (and associated interfaces) lack genuine cultural differentiation. For example, in-vehicle navigation systems are typically identical in form and function across world markets, differing only in the local language and map database. To capture and explore culturally-salient design factors, we utilised a scenario-based design methodology, involving 6 experienced drivers from the UK and Malaysia. Participants were asked to portray their ideal navigation system interface designs – by drawing pictograms and devising accompanying spoken messages – to direct drivers along 3 prescribed routes in the UK, Malaysia and Japan. Routes were presented using video and paper maps, with the order of presentation counterbalanced between groups; participants were not told in advance from which country each route was derived. Proposed designs highlight differences at a country level, which are consequently interpreted from a cultural perspective. For example, Malaysian drivers included a higher density of navigational elements in their designs, particularly in their home environment, compared to UK drivers. Malaysian drivers also created more incremental designs, particularly on the approach to a manoeuvre, suggesting a desire for greater navigational support at this point in the journey. Landmarks were consistently incorporated in designs, but differences were noted in cultural salience. Additionally, the phrasing of instructions (e.g. “go straight on”), nomenclature for road elements (e.g. ‘roundabout’) and distance declaration conventions (e.g. units) differed at a country level. The findings can be used to inform the design of culturally-attuned in-vehicle navigation systems

Influence of Motivation on Wayfinding

This research explores the role of affect in the domain of human wayfinding by asking if increased motivation will alter the performance across various routes of increasing complexity. Participants were asked to perform certain navigation tasks within an indoor Virtual Reality (VR) environment under either motivated and not-motivated instructions. After being taught to navigate along simple and complex routes, participants were tested on both the previously learned routes and new routes that could be implicitly derived from the prior spatial knowledge. Finally, participants were tested on their ability to follow schematized instructions to explore familiar and unfamiliar areas in the VR environment. Performance of the various spatial tasks across the motivated and control groups indicated that motivation improved performance in all but the most complex conditions. Results of the empirical study were used to create a theoretical model that accounts for the influence of affect on the access of route knowledge. Results of the research suggest the importance of including past knowledge and affect of the traveler as components of future wayfinding systems

Self-reported wayfinding inclinations: pleasure and self-efficacy in exploring

openAbstract The ability to orient in an environment is an important factor in everyday life. The sense of orientation is a central aspect of psychophysical wellbeing. This study therefore investigates the cognitive and emotional aspects of wayfinding, which are involved in orientation tasks. Previous studies show that our self valuations and the beliefs that we have according to our capacity to orient have an important influence on how we present our tendencies of navigation.Abstract The ability to orient in an environment is an important factor in everyday life. The sense of orientation is a central aspect of psychophysical wellbeing. This study therefore investigates the cognitive and emotional aspects of wayfinding, which are involved in orientation tasks. Previous studies show that our self valuations and the beliefs that we have according to our capacity to orient have an important influence on how we present our tendencies of navigation

Visuospatial working memory facilitates indoor wayfinding and direction giving

The goal was to test the role of verbal and visuospatial working memory in wayfinding and direction giving in an indoor environment using a dual task paradigm. One hundred ninety-two participants were asked to find their way through one floor of a complex building and to provide directions for a fictitious recipient to find the way in one of three conditions: control (no secondary task), verbal dual task (word-nonword judgments as secondary task), or visuospatial dual task (clock hand judgments as secondary task). Wayfinding was slower in the visuospatial dual task condition than in the control condition, with the verbal condition intermediate. Directions were less accurate in the visuospatial dual task condition than in control and verbal conditions. Women provided more information in wayfinding directions than did men. Together, these findings indicate that visuospatial working memory plays an important role in wayfinding and direction giving in an indoor environment

(Dis)orientation and Design Preferences Within an Unfamiliar Care Environment: A Content Analysis of Older Adults’ Qualitative Reports After Route Learning

© The Author(s) 2020. Ensuring that environments are designed to cater for those with decreasing orientation, perceptual and mobility skills, is an example of how environments are being changed to become more age and dementia friendly. However, environmental design should directly involve potential users of the environment to ensure that their views are accounted for. Four open-ended questions, focusing on orientation strategies, reasons for disorientation, and design preferences, were given to 32 older adults after they had completed a route learning task through an unfamiliar environment. A Content Analysis found a strong focus on participants’ ability to memorize routes based on verbally encoding the route and on their ability to remember landmarks, with the reports linking closely to cognitive theories of navigation. Design suggestions included the importance of a homely and welcoming environment, memorable features, and access to the outdoors. The findings can be used inform age and dementia friendly design principles