Mobile Three-Dimensional Maps for Wayfinding in Large and Complex Buildings: Empirical Comparison of First-Person vs. Third-Person Perspective
Authors:Burigat S., Chittaro L., Sioni R.
Published in:IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems, vol. 47, no. 6, December 2017, pp. 1029-1039.
Abstract:The computational capabilities of today’s smartphones
make it possible to take advantage of mobile threedimensional
(3-D) maps to support navigation in the physical
world. In particular, 3-D maps might be useful to facilitate indoor
wayfinding in large and complex buildings, where the typical
orientation cues (e.g., street names) and location tracking technologies
that can be used outdoors are unavailable. The use of mobile
3-D maps for indoor wayfinding is still largely unexplored and research
on how to best design such tools has been scarce to date. One
overlooked but important design decision for 3-D maps concerns
the perspective from which the map content should be displayed,
with first-person and third-person perspectives being the two major
options. This paper presents a user study involving wayfinding
tasks in a large and complex building, comparing a mobile 3-D map
with first-person perspective, a mobile 3-D map with third-person
perspective, and a traditional mobile 2-D map. The first-person
perspective shows the mobile 3-D map of the building from a floorlevel
egocentric point of view, whereas the third-person perspective
shows the surroundings of the user from a fixed distance behind
and above her position. Results of the study reveal that the mobile
3-D map with third-person perspective leads to shorter orientation
time before walking, better clarity ratings, lower workload, mental
demand and effort scores, and higher preference score compared
to the mobile 3-D map with first-person perspective. Moreover, it
leads to shorter orientation time before walking, better pleasantness
ratings, lower mental demand scores, and higher preference
score compared to the mobile 2-D map.
