Route guidance systems provide spatial information that supplement real-world experiences during wayfinding. The design features of the images displayed by these guidance systems influence the survey and route knowledge they convey. We conducted two experiments to test the influence of different design features on spatial knowledge. The first experiment took place in a virtual reality. During a learning phase, participants automatically moved through a virtual village. At each intersection, a navigation system appeared. In a subsequent testing phase, participants had to use their spatial knowledge of the village to complete a pointing task, a wayfinding task and a map completion task. The second experiment took place in a real, but unknown city. Participants walked a pre-defined route through the city and were instructed to look at a navigation system at each intersection. Afterwards, they had to complete a pointing task and a sketch-map task. In both experiments, the rotation of the map image, the zoom-level, the degree of schematization and the display of off-screen landmarks was manipulated. When data collection is finished, data of about 300 participants will be analyzed with mixed-model regressions. The results could provide new insights that are highly valuable for the research on spatial cognition
