Analysis of Digital Map-Based Navigation Systems as Wayfinding Aids

Abstract

Wayfinding from the perspective of the scientific domain known as Environmental Cognition is the process in which individuals attempt to orient themselves in space for the purpose of navigation. This process has been identified to be highly susceptible to influence from changes both direct and indirect to the environment in which the individual may be traversing. This acknowledgement along with technological advancement in spatial positioning and systems engineering has led to the development of “Navigation Systems” in which seek to aid their users in their wayfinding tasks. The implementation of these navigation systems very drastically, but 2 share three key components: Positioning, Routing, and Presentation. Positioning refers to the way in which a system determines the location of a user, Routing refers to how the system determines routes from said positioning to the desired end-destination, and lastly Presentation involves how this information garnered by routing and positioning is summarized and interface to the user of the system. This study analyzes two available navigation systems for how they differ in their implementation of these components and whether these differences led to a difference in user experience. Specifically, these two systems are compared based on a variety of performance metrics such as time spent traversing a route, number of stops taken by study participants to re-orient themselves, as well as some perceptual workload comparisons. The results of this study indicate that the difference in performance metrics and perceptions of workload that arise from the difference between the navigation systems are likely to be highly contextual in terms of the environment being traveled as well as individual preferences.