Spatial Orientation with a Prominent Hallway Landmark

Abstract

The design of 3-D perspective interfaces can be facilitated by using virtual room displays for spatially organizing information inside of rooms, but additional design methods are needed to enhance between-room spatial knowledge. To evaluate its potential as a design enhancement, a prominent landmark in the hallway between the rooms was compared with a no landmark condition. Participants navigated a shopping center via hallways on a desktop virtual environment. Pointing and sketch map data were obtained as measures of configural (or survey) spatial knowledge for objects in the same store or in different stores. A robust “room effect” was found. Spatial knowledge was better for objects in the same store than for objects in different stores. However, the landmark had little or no effect on between-store spatial knowledge. These results suggest that landmarks may not be effective at enhancing the design of 3-D human-computer interfaces.

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