Abstract
Despite the now-ubiquitous two-dimensional (2D) maps, photorealistic three-dimensional (3D) representations of cities (e.g., Google Earth) have gained much attention by scientists and public users as another option. However, there is no consistent evidence on the influences of 3D photorealism on pedestrian navigation. Whether 3D photorealism can communicate cartographic information for navigation with higher effectiveness and efficiency and lower cognitive workload compared to the traditional symbolic 2D maps remains unknown. This study aims to explore whether the photorealistic 3D representation can facilitate processes of map reading and navigation in digital environments using a lab-based eye tracking approach. Here we show the differences of symbolic 2D maps versus photorealistic 3D representations depending on users’ eye-movement and navigation behaviour data. We found that the participants using the 3D representation were less effective, less efficient and were required higher cognitive workload than using the 2D map for map reading. However, participants using the 3D representation performed more efficiently in self-localization and orientation at the complex decision points. The empirical results can be helpful to improve the usability of pedestrian navigation maps in future designs.
Highlights
Despite the popularity of 2D maps, 3D Photorealism has long been the interest to present city information and recent technical advances such as oblique photogrammetry technology (Frueh et al 2004; Wang et al 2008) make it more popular
Unlike traditional 2D maps that provide an aerial view of the geographic world by flat symbols that vary in shape, colour and label, photorealistic 3D representations (e.g., Google Earth, NASA World Wind) present objects in three dimensions and can provide more information
Can 3D photorealism communicate information with higher effectiveness, higher efficiency and lower cognitive workload compared to the traditional symbolic 2D maps? In this paper, we focus on its support for spatial knowledge acquisition for pedestrian navigation
Summary
Despite the popularity of 2D maps, 3D Photorealism has long been the interest to present city information and recent technical advances such as oblique photogrammetry technology (Frueh et al 2004; Wang et al 2008) make it more popular. Unlike traditional 2D maps that provide an aerial view of the geographic world by flat symbols that vary in shape, colour and label, photorealistic 3D representations (e.g., Google Earth, NASA World Wind) present objects in three dimensions and can provide more information. Their textured 3D models can give a sense of reality. It is believed that three dimensions provide spatiality which can facilitate physical object identification such as landmark recognition in wayfinding, making it superior to 2D maps for non-expert users (Kray et al 2003; Plesa and Cartwright 2008; Zanola et al 2009). Landmarks can act as anchor points at decision points guiding the movement and provide
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