Optimal route selection with route planners

Abstract

Route planners request user input about preferred route characteristics in order to provide the user with the optimal route. Although navigators have a general idea about what constitutes the optimal route, this may be difficult to express in the search interface. Further, the relative importance of route selection criteria for a user often depends on the route alternatives actually found between start and destination. Based on a desktop study this research examines how dynamic exploration of a pre-computed set of feasible routes supports the user in getting an overview of existing routes, how allowing users to weight criteria can help them to retrieve optimal routes, and how context information about route alternatives provided during route choice reduces ineffective steps while settings search parameters in the user interface.