Human Wayfinding in Path-Networks: A Survey of Possible Strategies.

This paper is derived from an unpublished D.Phil thesis: "Unplanned Wayfinding in Path-Networks: A Theoretical Study of Human Problem-Solving (Gotts 1988). It is a modified version of those parts of the thesis most relevant to the design of wayfinding aids such as variable message signs (VMS) and in-vehicle route-guidance information (IVRGI) systems. This paper, however, does not itself discuss such wayfinding aids; rather, it is a step toward understanding the problem-solving strategies and the internal representations ofthe environment human wayfinders use in the absence of aids of these types. The paper is theoretical in nature, but suggestions are made for empirical tests of some of the hypotheses put forward. Without an understanding of common wayfinding strategies and the internal representations underlying them, efforts to design genuinely useful wayfinding aids are bound to be groping in the dark: at best, they may be shown to be useful in a specific network, to a specific group of people, under given circumstances - with no guarantee that this usefulness will transfer to other networks, travellers, or circumstances. Understanding the route-choice behaviour of road-users requires consideration of the information about the travel environment available to them. An assumption of perfect information about the layout of the travel environment and the traffic conditions within it is a convenient simplification - but is also wholly unrealistic. We cannot be confident that this lack of realism is unimportant in transport modelling

Modeling user navigation

This paper proposes the use of neural networks as a tool for studying navigation within virtual worlds. Results indicate that the network learned to predict the next step for a given trajectory. The analysis of hidden layer shows that the network was able to differentiate between two groups of users identified on the basis of their performance for a spatial task. Time series analysis of hidden node activation values and input vectors suggested that certain hidden units become specialised for place and heading, respectively. The benefits of this approach and the possibility of extending the methodology to the study of navigation in Human Computer Interaction applications are discussed

Turning the shelves: empirical findings and space syntax analyses of two virtual supermarket variations

The spatial structure of a virtual supermarket was systematically varied to investigate human behavior and cognitive processes in unusual building configurations. The study builds upon experiments in a regular supermarket, which serve as a baseline case. In a between-participant design a total of 41 participants completed a search task in two different virtual supermarket environments. For 21 participants the supermarket shelves were turned towards them at a 45° angle when entering the store, giving high visual access to product categories and products. For 20 participants the shelves were placed in exactly the opposite direction obstructing a quick development of shopping goods dependencies. The obtained differences in search performance between the two conditions are analyzed using space syntax analyses and comparisons made of environmental features and participants’ actual search path trajectories