Overall Visibility Might Offer False Affordance to Indoor Wayfinding: The Role of Global and Local Landmarks

Abstract

Using a virtual 3D model of a shopping center, this study explored whether greater visibility provided by transparent walls in the building model, along with the presence of global and local landmarks, facilitated indoors wayfinding. Participants observed video clips of a virtual walkthrough either in a building with transparent or opaque walls, responded to wayfinding questions, and their eye movements were tracked while watching the video. Findings showed no significant difference between participants in the transparent and opaque building in answering wayfinding questions. Eye movements showed significantly longer eye fixations for participants in the transparent building compared to participants in the opaque building, in addition to longer fixations on global landmarks compared to local landmarks. Taken together, the findings imply that the greater visibility through the transparent walls may have offered false wayfinding affordance, rather than facilitate wayfinding decisions.