#112: "The Eyes Have It!" - Where we look while navigating
How do you navigate to a place you have never been to before? Do you look for clues in the environment, or do you follow the blue dot on your navigation system? Landmarks help us to learn the layout of a traveled space. In my Ph.D. project, I investigate how we should visualize landmarks on mobile map displays to support pedestrians in learning the environment they travel through.
-
- A participant from the Swiss Armed Forces during our real-world navigation experiment.
We navigate to work, to shop, to recreate, day by day. Navigation and wayfinding, especially in unfamiliar environments, is a complex and cognitively challenging process. Landmarks help us to improve spatial learning by easing object identification between a map display and the environment. However, current navigation systems either omit landmarks or depict them using their spatial footprints and not how they are seen by wayfinders.
Real-world navigation study
We conducted a real-world navigation study with genuine wayfinding experts - namely Swiss military personnel. We investigated whether different landmark visualization styles could help these navigators to learn a traveled space. The study was conducted in a residential area, unfamiliar to participants, in Brugg, Aargau, Switzerland. We asked our participants to follow a given route and to identify specific landmarks.
We developed two mobile map applications where landmarks are visualized as 2D abstract footprints in one and 3D realistic models in the other. We assigned participants to either the 2D or 3D map display group. At the end of the experiment, participants' spatial learning was examined with a spatial learning test. During the experiment, we used a mobile eye-tracker to record participants' eye-movements while solving a route following navigation task.
What do we look at during navigation?
Navigators who were using a map with 2D landmark footprints spent more time looking at the environment and the navigation system, compared to the navigators using a mobile map with realistic looking 3D landmarks. However, the latter spent more time looking at the visualized landmarks.
How do we look at landmarks on a mobile map?
3D realistic landmarks draw more attention compared to the 2D footprints. The figure below shows the density of navigators' eye fixations on the map display recorded during the navigated route with the help of realistic looking 3D landmarks (left) compared to the 2D footprints (right). Users viewing 2D landmarks searched a wider area around the traveled route to obtain the necessary information to complete the navigation task.
-
- realistic landmarks vs footprints
- 3D realistic landmarks (left) draw more attention compared to the 2D footprints (right). The darker the color the higher the attention spend on that area.
Visual attention influences spatial learning
The participants who were looking at the environment more often improved their spatial learning significantly. However, the participants that looked more at the navigation system display exhibited worse spatial knowledge of the crossed environment.
The take-home message of our research is that the way users interact with the navigational devices affects their spatial learning of the traveled environment. People will continue to use these devices to ease their navigation needs. Thus, our findings have important implications for designing future navigation systems that focus on landmarks and direct pedestrians' attention back to the environment for improved spatial learning.
Weitere News
- #125: Der 125. und letzte
- #124: Gletscher vor 125 Jahren und heute
- #123: Ist das Navi in der Hand der erste Schritt zum betreuten Wohnen?
- #122: In eine neue Welt katapultiert
- #121: How to make health care service provision more equitable and greener
- #120: Unsere Welt ist eine multidimensionale Collage
- #119: Is Tourism the Beginning or the End? Livelihoods of Georgian Mountain People at Stake
- #118: «Wir müssen den Klimawandel systematisch als Risiko mitdenken»
- #117: Andean mountain regions: Fragile sentinels of landscape and cultural transformation
- #116: Temporary streams at the doorsteps of Irchel Campus
- #115: Schneeflocken vom Weltraum aus zählen
- #114: Provokation und Revolte am GIUZ
- #113: Ambitious goals for biodiversity urgently needed!
- #111: Investigating plants genetic structure from above
- #110: «I see and I remember. I do and I understand.»
- #109: «Für uns, unsere Kinder und Kindeskinder»
- #108: Was macht die Digitalisierung mit unserer Umwelt?
- #107: The role of a developer at GIUZ
- #106: Dem unterirdischen Wasser auf der Spur
- #105: Was der Geographieunterricht zur Bildung im 21. Jahrhundert beitragen kann
- #104: Nepal - Kein Land für alte Leute?
- #103: Klimawandel in der Schweiz: Alles, was du wissen musst!
- #102: Wie Instagram unseren Umgang mit der Natur verändert
- #101: Numbed by navigation technologies: How can we counteract?
- #100: Das ist der 100. Blogbeitrag
- #99: Investigating food sustainability: from production and trade to consumption
- #98: Geographers live in concert - postponed!
- #97: Global Glyphosate: Uneven Geographies of herbicide production and use
- #96: "Pesticides burned grass and know-how"
- #95: Vier Standorte in 125 Jahren
- #94: Dietikon: Vom Bauerndorf zur Stadt
- #93: What is biodiversity?
- #92: Feldarbeit im ruralen Nepal: Reflektion zu Positionalität, Verantwortung und Rollen
- #91: Das Schulfach Geographie: heute und morgen
- #90: Funktionale Diversität aus dem Weltraum kartieren
- #89: Adieu ewig’ Eis
- #88: Landschaftsleistungen erlebbar machen
- #87: What is the role of variability in nature?
- #86: The Skin of Chitwan
- #85: Animated flight line collection over Switzerland
- #84: Space, Nature & Society: Wo wir forschen und was wir tun
- #83: Do you know about the 3MT competition?
- #82: An academic career in ecology
- #81: Hunderte Studierende verzaubern den Semesterstart an der Uni Zürich
- #80: Wie bewegen wir uns in Zukunft fort?
- #79: Willkommen im GEO- und ESS-Studium!
- #78: Expedition vom Fenster aus: Wie nimmst du deine Umgebung wahr?
- #77: Mitten in der Pandemie eine historische Pandemie untersuchen
- #76: Das Geoteam stellt sich vor
- #75: How roots influence climate change
- #74: Imaging the earth from above
- #73: Studierende sammeln Daten: Natur, Landschaft und Ressourcen
- #72: Trouvaillen aus dem Archiv
- #71: The fluorescence of phytoplankton from 800 km above
- #70: Der kalte Norden ist auch familiär
- #69: How the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us to tackle the climate crisis
- #68: Studierende sammeln Daten: Migration, Mobilität und Stadt
- #67: Sommerpause!
- #66: On the art of failing forward
- #65: Die Wasserstadt Zürich mit dem Smartphone entdecken
- #64: Auf den Spuren der ersten Schweizer Polarforscher
- #63: Geistreiche Wortspiele
- #62: Von Gemüse über Milch bis zu Kaffee: Solawis in der Deutschschweiz
- #61: Berner Seeland - quo vadis?
- #60: Intense days on the field course to Val Piora
- #59: Panta rhei - alles fliesst
- #58: Comic Strip Geographies
- #57: Where we come from
- #56: A journey through time with loess deposits
- #55: Schlacht am Morgarten 1315: Wie sah die Landschaft damals aus?
- #54: Berne going green
- #53: Biochar increases rice root architecture
- #52: Velo- und Fussverkehr in der Corona-Zeit
- #51: The impact of Covid-19 from an economic geography perspective
- #50: Why do we create virtual forests?
- #49: Wenn das Eis fehlt: Das Lötschental und seine Zukunft
- #48: Wie Skitouren geplant werden: Big Data gibt Einblicke
- #47: Is there a place for people in protected areas?
- #46: Artenvielfalt im Irchelpark
- #45: Cress, tomatoes and the meaning of the universe
- #44: Scientific games to understand social-ecological system dynamics
- #43: Insight into the WGMS
- #42: Connecting female hydrologists worldwide: an initiative born at GIUZ
- #41: Maximilian schickt dich einkaufen
- #40: Sars-CoV-2 and food producers: who cares?
- #39: The value of water
- #38: Mit Slimy-Masse die Gletscherschmelze illustrieren
- #37: Was machen Geographinnen und Geographen nach dem Studium?
- #36: Geographie-Student Jonathan, der Erdball und die CO2-Männli
- #35: Zwei Studiengänge am Geographischen Institut
- #34: Urban Sustainability as New Financial Fix?
- #33: Stillschweigend im Verborgenen
- #32: Interaktiv und interdisziplinär
- #31: Unpacking the complexity of social-ecological systems
- #30: Der Landschaft lauschen
- #29: Synergien zwischen Homeschooling und Hochschullehre schaffen
- #28: The first fully remote PhD defenses
- #27: Der Weltwassertag fällt ins Wasser
- #26: Die GIUZ Sustainability Task Force
- #25: Was ist Geographie?
- #24: «Geografe nüme schlafe!»
- #23: Auf dem Weg zur 2000-Watt-Gesellschaft
- #22: Spatial genetics for plant-based communities - and much more!
- #21: Strebergärtli - Irchel Garden Project
- #20: Writing papers - a nightmare. Or not?
- #19: Urbanisierte Landschaften - Leben zwischen Natur und Zivilisation
- #18: Atmende Wälder in 3D
- #17: «Wir sind hier, wir sind laut!»
- #16: Was ist EGEA?
- #15: Exploring the future of biodiversity
- #14: Lawinenbulletins in den Alpen: Konsistenz über die Landesgrenzen hinweg
- #13: Ein Kaffee aus der Eiszeit
- #12: Grönland 1912 - und heute!
- #11: «Wir sitzen alle im selben Boot»
- #10: Monitoring und Reduktion von Flugreisen am GIUZ
- #9: Der Verein Geographie Alumni UZH: Ein Forum für alle Geographieinteressierten
- #8: Wissen in Bildern - Informationsdesign heute
- #7: Geographie in Aufruhr
- #6: Gletschermessreihen mit Mayonnaise
- #5: Landkarten im Reduit
- #4: Die Plastiksuppe kartieren
- #3: Neue Abteilung «Space, Nature and Society»
- #2: Wie alles begann
- #1: Alles Gute zum 125. Geburtstag