Design Implications for an Indoor Navigation Map: Focusing on Vertical Movement

Abstract

Recently, the importance of indoor positioning systems which are being developed to replace the global positioning system has increased. This is due to increases in the size of indoor space, which unlike outdoor space, is spatially limited by walls, ceilings and floors. Also, vertical movement occurs due to multi-level characteristics and this causes many people to easily lose their way indoors. Despite these differences found between indoor and outdoor environments, the number of studies on indoor navigation system was not studied far in extent. In addition, studies on indoor navigation systems have been largely technical, while consideration of map design, an important elements of an indoor navigation system, has not been a priority. This study investigated how indoor navigation maps should support users indoor wayfinding.

In a preliminary study, a contextual inquiry, follow-up interview, and case study were conducted, resulting in six design implications: 1) design the map representation considering the essential elements of the wayfinding task 2) use appropriate criteria and the number of chunks 3) give feedback in the middle of a long straight path 4) consider giving distance information as a secondary source 5) consider individuals use of different strategies depending on the ceiling height 6) give the direction to move the floor level first. The main study considered the optimal timing for vertical movement, based on the design implications from the preliminary study. Experiments were conducted to determine whether there is a difference in peoples spatial knowledge acquisition performance when a route direction is provided in an indoor navigation map by differentiating the timing for vertical movement (condition1: at the beginning, condition2: in the middle, condition3: at the end of the route). Findings indicated that the number of transitions between two maps (maps before and after floor level movement) and the difficulty to mentally connect the route between two maps were lower in condition 1 (vertical movement at the beginning) than condition2 (vertical movement in the middle). Results suggests that when designing a route, the floor should be moved at the beginning close to the starting point in indoor navigation maps.