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Every route instruction type (e.g. map, symbol, photo) induces a specific cognitive load. However, when these types are used at different decision points in a building, the building configuration of these points also influences the induced cognitive load. Therefore, the process of route guidance results in an interaction between the instruction type and the decision point, which determines the induced cognitive load. One way of reducing cognitive load during route guidance is by using adaptive systems that show specific route instruction types at specific decision points. Therefore, in this VR experiment, the usability of such an adaptive indoor route guidance system is tested by tracking the wayfinding and gaze behavior of the users. First, the difference in wayfinding and gaze behavior between all route instruction types is compared. Next, the building configuration at the decision points is quantified through the architectural theory of space syntax, and the correlation with the wayfinding and gaze behavior is determined. Our findings indicate that adapting the route instruction type does make a difference for the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As indoor wayfinding can be very challenging, adapted systems, which adapt the route instruction type, are being developed to facilitate more supportive indoor route guidance. In this study, such a system has been developed based on the results of an online survey. This adapted system was compared with a non-adapted system by use of eye tracking, position tracking, an orientation test and a questionnaire. The results revealed that using symbols instead of photos reduced the imposed cognitive load, while using 3D-simulations instead of photos improved the environmental awareness. This resulted in less wayfinding errors with the adapted system, compared to the non-adapted system. Therefore, the present study provides additional evidence on the benefits of adapted systems for indoor route guidance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To be able to design indoor wayfinding systems that adhere better to the needs of the users, user perception on complexity needs to be examined and linked to user characteristics and decision point characteristics. To identify how these characteristics influence perception, an online survey is executed in which participants had to indicate how complex they found a decision point, while interpreting a route instruction. The results show that complexity ratings depend both on user characteristics and on the function of the decision point. Decision points to change levels, start or end a route and to take turns each received significantly different complexity ratings. Isovist and visibility graph analysis characteristics of these decision points show that the first two actions were perceived as more complex when they took place in a narrow hallway, while the third action was perceived as more complex in a convex space. The results of this study can be used in the design of an adaptive wayfinding system that adapts the route instructions to the perceived decision point complexity. This adaptation will adhere better to the needs of the users compared to an adaptation based on solely theoretical complexity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this study is to investigate how efficiently and effectively collapsed buildings – due to the occurrence of a disaster – can be localized by a general crowd. Two types of visualization parameters are evaluated in an online user study: (1) greyscale images (indicating height information) versus true colours; (2) variation in the vertical viewing angle (0°, 30° and 60°). Additionally, the influence of map use expertise on how the visualizations are interpreted, is investigated. The results indicate that the use of the greyscale image helps to locate collapsed buildings in an efficient and effective manner. The use of the viewing angle of 60° is the least appropriate. A person with a map use expertise will prefer the greyscale image over the colour image. To confirm the benefits of the use of three-dimensional visualizations and the use of the colour image, more research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a rising awareness about the relevance of spatial ability and integrating spatial information into educational curricula. It is now considered essential to problem-solving and understanding a variety of natural and cultural phenomena. To analyze people's global-scale cognitive map and which factors influence it, a short playful test was developed that allowed participants to estimate the real land area of certain countries, regions, and continents. These estimates are analyzed to define how accurately the size of countries and continents is perceived. The results show that country of residence does not significantly affect people's spatial knowledge. However, gender, migration background, and familiarity with maps have a significant impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several factors influence the global-scale cognitive map. The use of school books, atlases and web maps all play an essential role in the development of geographical knowledge of adolescents. This research examines the impact of the educational system versus web maps on the adolescents' mental map. Through a specially designed web application, university students and secondary school pupils estimated the real proportion of countries and continents compared to Europe. Participants with a more theoretical background or wider knowledge about map projections and its distortions estimated the real proportions more accurately. This research also found that the Robinson projection, commonly used in schoolbooks and atlases, is the best-known map projection among adolescents. However, the influence of web maps could not be proven since no Mercator effect was found. Education is of undeniable importance, and therefore, educational materials that encourage people to look more carefully and critically at maps should be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Present-day indoor navigation systems are often not well adapted to the specific needs and requirements of its users. This research aims at improving those indoor navigation systems by providing navigation support that cognitively closer to user preferences and behaviour. More specifically, the focus is on the implementation of an accurate turn calculation method in a turn minimization algorithm, aiming to lower the complexity of routes and route instructions. This new-introduced perception-based turn calculation procedure is based on a direct door-to-door walking pattern, and, in contrast to previous algorithms, independent of the underlying indoor network type. It takes into account the effects of geometry of indoor space on human movement. To evaluate its functioning, both the traditional algorithm and the proposed perception-based algorithm are applied in the fewest turns path algorithm. It is demonstrated that the proposed algorithm accurately calculates turns in alignment with people's perception. The implementation of the calculation algorithm in the fewest turns path algorithm also allows future applications in indoor simplest path algorithms, and overall contributes to cognitively richer indoor navigation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development of a crowdsourced indoor navigation system named SoleWay. Because the input of volunteers is crucial, special attention was paid to the usability of the system at different stages throughout its development. Besides a user-friendly system, this has resulted in a number of important insights that can facilitate the development of future systems: the importance social motivation of potential users, integration of a stepwise approach (with a gradual release and subsequent user evaluations), and adaptation to user requirements. These elements combined are also crucial to be able to obtain a critical crowd that can sustain a viable content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The map presented in this paper summarises the combined land- and airside accessibility within Australia. To this end, we calculate a bimodal accessibility index at the scale of statistical units by aggregating the (shortest) travel time for three route segments: (1) road travel from the origin to a departure airport, (2) air travel, and (3) road travel from an arrival airport to the destination. The average travel time from a statistical unit to all other statistical units is calculated for the units' population centroids, after which an accessibility surface is interpolated using kriging. The map shows that southeastern Australia is generally characterised by a high accessibility index with the most populated cities being hotspots of accessibility. Central and northern Australia are – with few exceptions – far less accessible. In addition to this largely-expected pattern, the map also reveals a number of specific and perhaps more surprising geographical patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses research on the use of crowdsourcing to create optimal cycling routes on recreational paths. Topics include the use of user-generated content related to the modeling of leisure activities, the use of global positioning system (GPS) data from cyclists in Belgium, and path generation in relation to spatial data.

The general aim of this paper is to evaluate the influence of panning on the map user’s (attentive) behaviour, using a mixed methods approach. A user study was conducted in which participants – with an expertise in cartography – had to execute four tasks in Google Maps, using only a panning operation. During the first two tasks, participants had to follow a predefined route; during the latter two tasks they had to locate Belgium on a less detailed scale level. A strong task-related interactive behaviour was revealed by the participants’ mouse action and eye movements. Furthermore, the attentive behaviour was influenced by the type of view (map or satellite) and whether it occurs while performing the panning operation. The georeferenced eye movements were imported in a GIS for spatial analysis. Based on these spatial queries, we discovered that the duration of the fixations was associated by their location on the map. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We analyze if the visual exploration of landscape photographs is influenced by the urbanization level of the landscape and whether this is correlated with visual landscape complexity. We determine if differences in viewing behavior are related to differences in complexity, expressed by the photograph's spectral entropy. An eye-tracking experiment is conducted to measure visual behavior while observing the photographs. A more extensive and dispersed exploration is found in more urbanized landscapes. The fixation pattern is more restricted and clustered in weakly urbanized landscapes. When buildings are lacking, this trend cannot be extrapolated since these landscapes seem to elicit an unexpectedly extensive exploration. The urbanization level is positively correlated with the visual complexity, indicating its potential influence on the viewing behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This map summarizes the relative change in activity at 379 airports during the tumultuous economic period that lasted from 2003 to 2013 in the conterminous USA. Rather than treating airports only as individual nodes, the work identifies relative regional spatial change in airport activity based upon the combination of the percentage changes in three factors: departures, passenger levels, and available seats. The geographic results, calculated by kriging, show that the outcome over the period is not spatially uniform. In particular, the map shows that parts of the Rust Belt, Appalachia, and the Intermountain West fared relatively worse while the plains and coasts did somewhat better. The analysis expresses the fact that while footloose in the short-run, long-term adjustments in the airline industry, like those experienced across 2003–2013, did so in a spatially coherent way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this research is to investigate the influence of a map's background colour on user preferences regarding labels' typography, including their size, shape, orientation and texture. Four sets of backgrounds were tested: blank maps, grey scale, hot colours and cold colours. The foreground of these maps is populated with name labels, which are associated with point objects or areal objects. Bertin's visual variables were applied to this set of name labels, both separately and in combination. User preferences of different typographic variations were registered and compared on the basis of different background colours using a one-way ANOVA. The results indicated that the typographic design of the map labels should not be adapted according to the map's background colour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to extend current research regarding map users' cognitive processes while working with screen maps. The described experiment investigates how (expert and novice) map users retrieve information from memory that was previously gathered from screen maps. A user study was conducted in which participants had to draw a map from memory. During this task, they were instructed to say out loud every thought that came into mind. Both user groups addressed the same general cognitive structures and processes to solve the task at hand. However, the experts' background knowledge facilitated the retrieval process and allowed them to derive extra information through deductive reasoning. The novices used more descriptive terms instead of naming the objects and could remember less, and less detailed map elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the efficiency of label placement algorithms has been studied extensively, few studies considered the influence of the label designs on the efficiency of map readers. Labels are one of the most important elements on the map as they can provide more information than other symbols can. The design of the labels does have to stress the theme, shape and functionality of the associated objects, which results in a more efficient interpretation of the map content by the user. How the label designs can enhance the map readers' efficiency (and thus the quality of the maps themselves) is the main objective of this study. A user study was conducted in which the participants were asked to locate a target label on a map. Different label designs were implemented across the trials. The participants' reactions times were registered to measure their efficiency and statistically analysed using a one-way ANOVA. Two different users' characteristics were considered: gender and expertise. Related to the size, shape, orientation and texture of the labels, a number of significant differences (P<0·05) and trends were located. Differences in efficiency between males and females, on the one hand, and between novices and experts, on the other hand, were also described statistically. Consequently, recommendations can be formulated regarding the design of labels in order to obtain more efficient maps, keeping in mind the map users' characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiments described in this article combine response time measurements and eye movement data to gain insight into the users' cognitive processes while working with dynamic and interactive maps. Experts and novices participated in a user study with a ‘between user’ design. Twenty screen maps were presented in a random order to each participant, on which he had to execute a visual search. The combined information of the button actions and eye tracker reveals that both user groups showed a similar pattern in the time intervals needed to locate the subsequent names. From this pattern, information about the users' cognitive load could be derived: use of working memory, learning effect and so on. Moreover, the response times also showed that experts were significantly faster in finding the names in the map image. This is further explained by the eye movement metrics: experts had significantly shorter fixations and more fixations per second meaning that they could interpret a larger part of the map in the same amount of time. As a consequence, they could locate objects in the map image more efficiently and thus faster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of dynamic and interactive maps in relation to the user. A label placement method with an improved algorithmic efficiency is presented. Since this algorithm has an influence on the actual placement of the name labels on the map, it is tested if this efficient algorithms also creates more effective maps: how well is the information processed by the user. We tested 30 participants while they were working on a dynamic and interactive map display. Their task was to locate geographical names on each of the presented maps. Their eye movements were registered together with the time at which a given label was found. The gathered data reveal no difference in the user's response times, neither in the number and the duration of the fixations between both map designs. The results of this study show that the efficiency of label placement algorithms can be improved without disturbing the user's cognitive map. Consequently, we created a more efficient map without affecting its effectiveness towards the user. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]