An investigation into challenges experienced when route planning, navigating and wayfinding

Abstract

Some map users still experience difficulties when attempting to route plan, navigate and/or wayfind. This paper provides information on the outcomes of a research project that aims to identify the nature of the difficulties/challenges these users experience. The paper draws on findings from studies of strategies used by novice and experienced map users, and users with poor spatial abilities, to identify the skills that those with poor spatial abilities or with little map reading experience lack. Data were collected using Tobii Pro Glasses 2 hardware and associated software. Fourteen participants walked between two predetermined locations while wearing eye-tracking glasses and speaking their thoughts aloud. The data collected in this study were analysed using quantitative and qualitative approaches. Analysis of the results shows three key findings for this particular group: looking at the map incessantly led to missed environmental cues; street names were not labelled at decisionmaking points on the map; and some individuals having poor spatial abilities prefer small-scale landmarks, for example, buildings with numbers to locate themselves, as opposed to using road names or larger landmarks. We argue that by considering these findings, map designs could be adjusted to meet the needs of map users with poor spatial abilities. RÉSUMÉCertains utilisateurs de cartes rencontrent encore des difficultés lorsqu'ils essayent de planifier un chemin, naviguer ou trouver leur chemin. Ce papier présente des résultats d'un projet de recherche qui vise à identifier la nature des difficultés et des défis que les utilisateurs rencontrent. Les données ont été collectées avec le logiciel et matériel Tobii Pro Glasses 2. Quatorze personnes devaient se déplacer entre deux points tout en portant des lunettes de suivi de mouvements oculaires et en décrivant à haut voix leurs pensées. Les données recueillies dans cette étude ont été analysées en utilisant des méthodes quantitatives et qualitatives. L'analyse des résultats montre trois résultats clés pour ce groupe de personnes : regarder de façon incessante la carte conduit à manquer des indices donnés par l'environnement ; les noms des rues n'étaient pas cartographiés à des endroits

A Derivation of Factors Influencing the Innovation Diffusion of the OpenStreetMap in STEM Education

“…The apps being developed based on VGI have become widely distributed. For example, the "Maps.me" [20,21] app based on VGI by OSM has been adopted by more than 100 million users [21].…”

Gender and Age Differences in Using Indoor Maps for Wayfinding in Real Environments

“…Researchers investigating human-centred navigation [5] have looked for ways to redesign cartographical representations to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of wayfinding for users with spatial cognitive difficulties. However, the focus of these studies was outdoor wayfinding [6,7] and an exploratory study on how users accomplish their wayfinding behaviors in indoor environments is a challenging endeavour.…”

GlassesViewer: Open-source software for viewing and analyzing data from the Tobii Pro Glasses 2 eye tracker

“…In the past several decades, mobile (head-worn) eye tracking has become a popular research method that has found widespread use across a range of fields. The opportunity afforded by head-worn eye-tracking setups to acquire data on the visual behavior of participants who freely move around has enabled researchers to conduct studies in fields such as vision science (Land, 1992;Land & Lee, 1994;Ballard et al, 1995;Pelz & Canosa, 2001;Matthis et al, 2018), social interaction between adults (Ho et al, 2015;Rogers et al, 2018;Macdonald & Tatler, 2018;Rogers et al, 2019) or children and their parents (Yu & Smith, 2017;Suarez-Rivera et al, 2019), usability (Masood & Thigambaram, 2015;Bergstrom & Schall, 2014), marketing (Harwood & Jones, 2014), decision making (Gidlöf et al, 2013;Gidlöf et al, 2017), surgery (Dik et al, 2016;Harrison et al, 2016), navigation and wayfinding (Kiefer et al, 2014;Koletsis et al, 2017) and education (McIntyre et al, 2017;McIntyre & Foulsham, 2018).…”

“…The Tobii Pro Glasses 2 is a recent head-worn eye tracker that is commonly used across a range of studies (e.g., Harrison et al, 2016;Topolšek et al, 2016;Koletsis et al, 2017;Rogers et al, 2018;Raptis et al, 2018). However, analysis of the recordings is currently limited to Tobii Pro Lab, a software package sold by the manufacturer of this eye tracker, and other closed commercial software packages such as offered by iMotions.…”