Improving navigation messages for mobile urban guides: Effects of the guide's interlocutor model, spatial abilities and use of landmarks on route description

Abstract

The aim of this study was to define guidelines for designing dialogue-based pedestrian guidance applications. It was based on an investigation of human–human interactions over the phone, where one speaker took on the role of the guide and the other that of the person being guided. During these interactions, a concurrent navigation in a real large-scale environment was performed by the guided member of the dyad. The content of the route descriptions produced by the guides was analyzed in terms of the latter's representations of their interlocutors' prior knowledge of the route environment, their spatial abilities and the landmarks they mentioned. The main results show that when the guided subjects had no prior knowledge of the environment, guides with high spatial abilities provided more NLoc landmarks (e.g. “there is a bar”) than ExoLoc (e.g. “there is a bar to the right of the bank”) and EgoLoc landmarks (e.g. “there is a bar on your left”). Conversely, guides with low spatial abilities gave just as many NLoc landmarks as EgoLoc landmarks. Practical applications stemming from these results are discussed. Relevance to industry This paper assesses the usefulness of taking spatial abilities, prior knowledge and landmarks into account when designing a new type of guidance application, namely a dialogue-based pedestrian guidance system. It also indicates the different ways in which these factors can be taken into account during the development of such applications.