Abstract
While a road pattern influences wayfinding and navigation, its influence on the gaze behaviours of navigating pedestrians is not well documented. In this study, we compared gaze behaviour differences between regular and irregular road patterns using eye-tracking technology. Twenty-one participants performed orientation (ORI) and shortest route selection (SRS) tasks with both road patterns. We used accuracy of answers and response time to estimate overall performance and time to first fixation duration, average fixation duration, fixation count and fixation duration to estimate gaze behaviour. The results showed that participants performed better with better accuracy of answers using irregular road patterns. For both tasks and both road patterns, the Label areas of interest (AOIs) (including shops and signs) received quicker or greater attention. The road patterns influenced gaze behaviour for both Road AOIs and Label AOIs but exhibited a greater influence on Road AOIs in both tasks. In summary, for orientation and route selection, users are more likely to rely on labels, and roads with irregular patterns are important. These findings may serve as the anchor point for determining how people’s gaze behaviours differ depending on road pattern and indicate that labels and unique road patterns should be highlighted for better wayfinding and navigation.
Highlights
Road patterns provide fundamental information for mobile activities, such as wayfinding, route planning and automatic navigation; they are complicated
This study shows that for both ORI and shortest route selection (SRS) tasks, participants first fixated on Label areas of interest (AOIs) and on Road AOIs with both irregular and regular road patterns, and they had more fixation counts and longer fixation durations per 10,000 pixels for Label AOIs than for Road AOIs
We aimed to identify whether gaze differences occurred between regular and irregular road patterns during orientation and route selection
Summary
Road patterns provide fundamental information for mobile activities, such as wayfinding, route planning and automatic navigation; they are complicated. Many researchers have focused on the geometric attributes of road patterns and navigation solutions based on shortest time/distance routes [11,12] or other objective conditions [13]. People do not act solely based on geometric attributes. People tend to choose straight roads near the origin [15]. Pedestrians’ perceptions of travel time are influenced by the network structure [2,16], which may influence their route selection. It is necessary to investigate how people perceive and interact with road patterns and which information is important in this process
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