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Not all those who wander are lost… but when you are lost, there is a high chance that you are inside a building as we spend 90% of our time indoors. As opposed to outdoors, mobile indoor route guidance is not yet common practice, while the indoor environment can be far more complex than the outdoor one. As indoor navigation can be very challenging, we need supportive navigation systems that can ease the process. To this end, adaptive mobile indoor route guidance systems are being developed, which adapt the type of route instruction to the building configuration. This way, the right amount of information is provided at the right time and place. This work studies this type of smart route communication, and more specifically, its influence on the user. An online survey, a field experiment and a VR experiment were conducted to find out how building configuration can be quantified by the space syntax theory, which route instruction types should be used at which decision points and how this affects the performance, cognitive map, cognitive load and perception of the users. Prototypes were developed and eye tracking and position tracking were used to build the bridge between indoor route guidance technologies in smart buildings on the one hand, and the users of those smart buildings on the other hand. The results of this research can be translated into practical guidelines or implications for the design of adaptive mobile indoor route guidance systems, because this work has shown this is the way to go.

Bu çalışma, uzman ve uzman olmayan harita kullanıcılarının mekânsal bellek yeteneklerini incelemeye yönelik kullanıcı deneylerinin tasarım süreçlerine odaklanmıştır. Deneylerde, farklı harita kullanıcı gruplarının haritaların içeriğini hatırlamaları istendiğinde geliştirdikleri dikkate bağlı bilişsel stratejilerini açığa çıkarmada kullanılan bilişsel yük; taslak haritalar, göz izleme ve elektroensefalogram (EEG) gibi farklı yöntemlerden yararlanılarak ölçülmüştür. Birinci deneyde kullanıcılardan, basitleştirilmiş bir 2B topografik haritanın ana yollar, yerleşim, su ve yeşil alanlar gibi temel yapı elemanlarını, zaman kısıtlaması olmaksızın, ezberleyerek hatırladıklarını serbest elle çizmeleri istenmiştir. Görev sırasında kullanıcıda açığa çıkan bilişsel yük, çizilen taslak haritaların analizinin yanı sıra, sabitleme ve ilgi alanı (AoI) tabanlı göz izleme ve ortalama alfa gücü ve frontal alfa asimetrisi (FAA) gibi EEG metriklerine bağlı olarak değerlendirilmiştir. Karmaşık yapıda tasarlanan ve farklı zorluk seviyelerini içeren ikinci deneyde, çoktan seçmeli grafikler kullanılmış ve denemelerde zaman kısıtlaması uygulanmıştır. Sonuçların değerlendirilmesi aşamasında, ilk deneyden farklı olarak, bilişsel yük tespiti için EEG güç spektral yoğunluk değişimlerinden yararlanılmış; pariyetal alandaki alfa ve frontal alandaki teta frekanslarının olaya bağlı (de)senkronizasyonları dikkate alınmıştır., This study focused on the design processes of user experiments conducted to examine the spatial memory abilities, differences and similarities of expert and novice map users. In the experiments, different map user groups were asked to remember the content of maps with uniform or various levels of detail. The cognitive load of the participants that reveals their cognitive strategies depending on the attention they developed was measured using different methods such as sketch maps, eye tracking and electroencephalogram (EEG). In the first experiment, the users were asked to memorize the main structuring elements of a simplified 2D topographic map such as major roads, settlements, green areas and waterbodies without any time limitation, and in the next step, to draw what they remember with free hand. Next to the digital sketch map evaluation, cognitive load was assessed based on the fixation and AoI-based (area of interest) eye tracking metrics, together with EEG mean alpha power and frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA). The second experiment was designed in a more complex structure and included different difficulty levels and multiple-choice graphical options instead of hand-drawn sketch maps. Different from the first experiment, event-related (de)synchronization of alpha for parietal region and theta for frontal region were considered for evaluating the cognitive load through the calculations of EEG power spectral density changes.

In current indoor navigation systems, the paths along which people are guided are shortest paths or derivatives. A cognitive route planning algorithm that calculates cognitive more comfortable paths, improves these existing systems by guiding people along more intuitive and easier-tofollow paths. The development of such an algorithm entails the identification of the aspects of the indoor environment inducing cognitive load during navigation. To identify these relevant aspects, a user study is enrolled: an in-depth discussion with experts is followed by an international online survey. Additionally, an experiment in a real indoor environment will be executed., Adjunct Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Location Based Services

A user study is conducted to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of two types of visualizations to identify damage sites in case of disaster. The test consists out 36 trials (18 for each visualisation) and in each trial an area of 1x1km, located in Ghent, is displayed on a screen. This image shows the combined height information from before and after the disaster. The first visualisation, page flipping, is based on greyscale images with height information from the pre- and post-disaster situation between which users can switch manually. The second visualisation, difference image, is a result of subtracting the heights (before versus after) and assigning a blue-white-red colour ramp. In order to simulate the urgency with which the data is captured, systematic and random imperfections are introduced in the post-disaster data. All participants’ mouse and key interactions are logged, which is further complemented by the registration of their eye movements. This give insights the visualizations’ efficiency, effectiveness and the overall search strategies of the participants., Eye Tracking for Spatial Research, Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop

This on-going research paper explores (the possibilities to integrate eye tracking (ET) and electroencephalogram (EEG) for cartographic usability research. While ET, on one hand, provides observations and measurements related to gaze movements, EEG, on the other hand, helps to monitor and measure electrical activity occurring at different locations in the brain with a high temporal resolution. Therefore, combining ET and EEG introduces a holistic approach enabling to measure both overt and covert attention, and additionally, may reveal insights on individual’s different strategies of spatial cognition, if there is any. In this context, we introduce the experimental design settings for visual search task on simplified 2D static maps considering expert and novice participants, outlining methodological proposal and possible analyses. The paper mainly discusses the technical and theoretical issues of ET-EEG integration and mentions potential benefits of implementing EEG in cartographic usability research to indicate its value for future studies., Eye Tracking for Spatial Research, Proceedings of the 3rd International Workshop

This dissertation presents a series of usability studies, which examines the usability of the application of visual variables on cartographic text. Labels’ size, shape, orientation, texture, and colour were tested. The study also examines different lettering systems and their impact on cartographic text design. The obtained users’ preference, time measurement, questionnaires and eye tracking data were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Insights are acquired to improve the quality of map through Improving cartographic text design.

User evaluations of interactive and dynamic applications face various challenges related to the active nature of these displays. For example, users can often zoom and pan on digital products, and these interactions cause changes in the extent and/or level of detail of the stimulus. Therefore, in eye tracking studies, when a user’s gaze is at a particular screen position (gaze position) over a period of time, the information contained in this particular position may have changed. Such digital activities are commonplace in modern life, yet it has been difficult to automatically compare the changing information at the viewed position, especially across many participants. Existing solutions typically involve tedious and time-consuming manual work. In this article, we propose a methodology that can overcome this problem. By combining eye tracking with user logging (mouse and keyboard actions) with cartographic products, we are able to accurately reference screen coordinates to geographic coordinates. This referencing approach allows researchers to know which geographic object (location or attribute) corresponds to the gaze coordinates at all times. We tested the proposed approach through two case studies, and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the applied methodology. Furthermore, the applicability of the proposed approach is discussed with respect to other fields of research that use eye tracking—namely, marketing, sports and movement sciences, and experimental psychology. From these case studies and discussions, we conclude that combining eye tracking and user-logging data is an essential step forward in efficiently studying user behavior with interactive and static stimuli in multiple research fields.