Wayfinding Applications Research Articles

Sighpost Assistant Prototype Design: A Wayfinding Application to Assist The Independence of The Visually Impaired in Mobility Through Understanding The Concept of Space

This research presents a study related to the creation and design of direction applications to help blind independence in mobility through understanding the concept of space. This research aims to help blind independence in carrying out daily activities by understanding the concept of space in their environment. This research uses a development method, namely the prototype development model. However, this research is limited only to the development of the Signpost Assistant application design. It is hoped that this research will be continued and will produce a finished product. Based on the results of data collection and prototype development carried out, it can be concluded that Signpost Assistant is an application that is quite easy to use and is needed by blind people.

The syntheses of static and mobile wayfinding information: an empirical study of wayfinding preferences and behaviour in complex environments

PurposeThe efficient delivery of environmental information to wayfinders in complex environments is a challenge for information designers. Wayfinding tasks can be quite strenuous and frustrating in the visual absence of dedicated wayfinding information. This study aims to explore the behaviour regarding the use of wayfinding information by navigators in complex environments.Design/methodology/approachAn experiment has been conducted in which participants have performed wayfinding tasks in a spatially complex university campus. The participants were instructed to use the think-aloud protocol during the experiment. The behaviour has been recorded using the head-mounted video recorder (GoPro), mobile phone screen (audio\\video) recorder and interview. Twelve university students have been selected based on the equal level of spatial ability using the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction scale. Each participant performed three wayfinding tasks to locate the unknown locations inside the campus using a mobile wayfinding application and other information sources.FindingsThe results of this study demonstrated significant behavioural preferences in acquiring wayfinding information. Most of the participants synthesised the static and mobile wayfinding information sources, while some preferred only the static ones. Gender differences have also been found for planning and route finding. This study recommends the syntheses of static and mobile wayfinding information for designing an efficient institutional wayfinding system.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size has been kept small because of the qualitative exploration of the wayfinding behaviour regarding the wayfinding information syntheses behaviour. The experiment findings can be further explored with larger data set and controlled behavioural metrics. This study can help understand the user requirements in facilities management for spatially complex institutional environments.Practical implicationsThe current findings can be further used to develop a framework for wayfinding information designers to assist them in understanding the current practices and incorporate them for improving institutional wayfinding systems. The management of the offered facilities within an institution can be further improved to make the space more efficient by saving users’ time and efforts.Originality/valueInformation syntheses or symbiosis of environmental information with the beacon-based digital wayfinding system is a new concept. This study explores the potential of such information syntheses for enhancing the legibility of complex institutional environments.

Are shelters in place? Mapping the distribution of transit amenities via a bus-stop census of San Francisco

Transit stops serve as crucial components of journeys for riders, but their condition is often left out of equity considerations. Two important empirical questions are what stop amenities, such as places to sit, clear signage, shelters for inclement weather, and unobstructed curbs are present, and how are they distributed across systems, which may reveal neighborhood or route-specific disparities. San Francisco, CA represents an ideal case for which to pursue this question, given it maintains a ‘transit first’ policy directive that mandates public space prioritize transit over private automobiles. An in-person census of 2964 street-level bus stops was conducted over three months, which finds that a majority of stops lack both seating and shelter of any kind, that route signage varies widely in format and legibility, and that roughly one third of all stops are obstructed by on-street parking, rendering them difficult to use and exposing riders to oncoming traffic. Stops in the city’s northern half are more likely to feature seating, shelter, and unobstructed curbs, whereas amenity “coldspots” nearly all lie within the city’s southern half. Stop amenities also vary sharply by bus route, such that routes with the longest headways (and thus waiting times) provide on average the least seating, shelter, and clear curbs. These three amenities – seating, shelter, and unobstructed curbs – are also present to a greater degree in Census tracts with higher shares of white residents. This census demonstrates that equity evaluations of transit must include stop amenities, which are often overlooked, can undermine transit’s attractiveness, and even compound long-standing imbalances in service quality for underserved communities. Furthermore, studies of this kind can inform where amenity upgrades should be prioritized, targeting those areas currently lacking in high-quality stops, and raising the minimum standard of stop amenities overall. Finally, given data collected in this census is almost entirely unavailable to riders within current trip-planning and wayfinding applications, this work raises the possibility of expanding transit-data standards to include amenity details.

Independent mobility for persons with VIB using GIS

Purpose The study aims to promote independent mobility for persons with visual impairment or legal blindness (VIB) by developing a Web-based wayfinding application using geographic information systems (GIS). While the literature mainly focuses on technical devices presenting results for wayfinding, a lack of integration of user needs is identified. The inclusive, participative developed application offers step-by-step directions for pre-trip planning through an accessible user interface. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a semi-automated approach to extract a pedestrian routing network data set based on open government data and field survey. User profiles calculate different routes using a weighting scheme for landmarks, orientation hints, infrastructure of crossings and sidewalks. The adoption of ArcGIS Web AppBuilder widgets allows access of the user interface additionally through keyboard-only navigation and therefore screen-reader capability. Findings GIS offers a powerful tool to design network analysis for persons with VIB. The routing algorithm accesses different user profiles, returning individualized turn-by-turn directions. The complex set of attributes, including shorelines, landmarks and barriers, can be integrated by semi-automated processes. Practical implications The paper illustrates the benefit of GIS applications for wayfinding of persons with VIB to raise self-determination and independence. Originality/value A ubiquitous pedestrian sidewalk network for a medium-size city comprises a novelty, as research has mainly focused on small areas. The integration of shorelines next to a various number of hints, landmarks and potential barriers through semi-automated processes allows reproducibility and transferability of the model to other cities.

Evaluation of Airport Wayfinding Accessibility with the Use of a Wheelchair Simulator

As the number of air passengers with disabilities is expected to increase in the coming decades, the significance of airport wayfinding accessibility has been recognized by airport stakeholders. Emerging assistive technologies have been used to accommodate passengers’ wayfinding needs; however, because of non-standard practices and the complexity of terminal designs, the literature only provides general guidance on improving airport wayfinding accessibility. There is a need for detailed analysis of quantitative traveler performance measures to evaluate airport wayfinding accessibility. This research is the first use of a wheelchair simulator to compare airport wayfinding signage with a mobile wayfinding application. A virtual model of the St. Louis Lambert International Airport main terminal was replicated using as-built computer-aided-design files. A federated simulation architecture was used to integrate the wheelchair simulator with a mobile wayfinding application. Wheelchair simulator experiments were conducted by analyzing twenty-four wheelchair users’ performance measures and eye tracking data. Although the mobile wayfinding application did not significantly reduce total travel time (–23.8 s) and deviation ratio (–3%), it reduced wheelchair users’ reliance on wayfinding signs by decreasing total glance frequency (–23.3 times) and total glance duration (–26.7 s) and helped to reduce travel anxiety in wheelchair users. The potential benefits of a mobile wayfinding application include improving traveler levels of service, reducing airport operating costs, and enhancing non-airline revenue. Overall, this study showed that, with the use of a wheelchair simulator, passenger performance could be captured and analyzed for evaluating the effectiveness of airport wayfinding accessibility and emerging assistive technologies.

Developing an Indoor Navigation Application: Identifying the Needs and Preferences of Users Who Are Visually Impaired

Introduction: This study identified users’ indoor navigation concerns, prototype feature preferences, and perceptions of the relative importance and difficulty of certain building types in order to guide the development of an accurate and user-friendly indoor navigation application. Methods: Six-hundred fourteen adult volunteers who are legally blind from the 7,000-member Sendero global positioning system (GPS) electronic discussion group completed a 27-item survey instrument using Survey Monkey Pro online. Data were analyzed using chi-square and cross tabulation statistics. Results: Participants felt points of interest were the most important type of indoor information, that ability to know their location at any time the most important application feature, and verbal output with auditory and vibrational cues, the best output mode. Airports and bus or rail transit facilities scored highest as important buildings for navigation systems, and sports arenas and airports scored highest as difficult buildings to navigate. Chi-square analyses demonstrated that gender and GPS use were related to travel confidence. In addition, GPS use was related to user age, degree of reading vision, and employment. Discussion: The findings demonstrate user preferences for an indoor wayfinding application and high-priority building types. Regardless of stated preferences, it is important to allow the user to customize the application settings. The judgments on building importance of participants provide data on which to prioritize future site development. The chi-square analyses were exploratory in nature and designed to discover possible relationships. Implications for practitioners: Vision education and rehabilitation professionals can use the findings to understand the process of accessible indoor navigation and structure lessons accordingly. Developers can improve their products. Both groups can know and understand the indoor wayfinding perceptions and opinions of more than 600 individuals who are legally blind.

Personalized accessible wayfinding for people with disabilities through standards and open geospatial platforms in smart cities

Of the many features that smart cities offer, safe and comfortable mobility of pedestrians within the built environment is of particular importance. Safe and comfortable mobility requires that the built environments of smart cities be accessible to all pedestrians, mobility abled and mobility impaired, given their various mobility needs and preferences. This, coupled with advanced technologies such as wayfinding applications, pedestrians can get assistance in finding the best pathways at different locations and times. Wayfinding applications comprise two components, a database component containing accessibility data, and appropriate algorithms that can utilize accessibility data to meet the mobility needs and preferences of all individuals. While wayfinding applications that provide accessibility on both permanent (e.g., steps) and temporary (e.g., snow) pathways are becoming available, there is a gap in current solutions. There are two elements in the gap, one is that the accessibility data used for finding accessible pathways for people with disabilities are not compliant to the widely agreed upon and available standards, another is that the accessibility data are not available in free and open platforms so that they can be used by developers to develop personalized wayfinding applications and services. To fill this gap, in this paper, we propose a new extension in CityGML with accessibility data. We demonstrate the benefits of the new extension by testing various route options within a city. These route options clearly show the differences between commonly (shortest and fastest) requested and produced pathways and accessible pathways that are feasible and preferred by people who are mobility impaired, such as wheelchair users.

A comparison of network model creation algorithms based on the quality of wayfinding results

AbstractVarious network model creation algorithms have been introduced to demonstrate a better approximation of the actual walking pattern and to provide a better wayfinding guide. However, it is under‐investigated which algorithm creates the most appropriate indoor navigation network model in the context of wayfinding applications. Due to the lack of discussion, some studies unconsciously extended an algorithm designed for creating an outdoor navigation network model to indoor space applications. This is problematic because indoor space has different spatial contexts from outdoor space, such as non‐linear space and no‐designated walking space. Our solution is to select five well‐known algorithms that have been introduced, to reproduce the algorithm for the automated construction of the indoor navigation network model, and to evaluate the applicability of algorithms for indoor wayfinding applications. This article compares the quality of wayfinding results from the output of the indoor navigation network model against two criteria: route efficiency (i.e., length) and route simplicity (i.e., number of directions). Our statistical analysis illustrates that the visibility graph algorithm is the most appropriate for indoor wayfinding applications.

Six scooter operators, six maps: Spatial coverage and regulation of micromobility in Vienna, Austria

Background and objectiveElectric scooters in shared schemes bring benefits to users in the form of on-demand, point-to-point transport, but pose new challenges for municipal regulation, including access issues related to their geographic availability. The size and position of the geographic service areas, or ‘geofences’ of scootersharing schemes determine where users can locate vehicles to begin a ride and park them to conclude one. The purpose of this study is to understand the spatial variance in scooter geofences in Vienna, Austria and how those differences relate to existing municipal regulations, as well as what may be learned from this case for the benefit of cities worldwide which are also grappling with this mobility trend. MethodsOver the course of one summer, all scooter geofences and no-parking zones for the six operators in Vienna were tracked via smartphone applications and manually digitized on a weekly basis. This enables spatial analyses across scooter operators, and sheds light on such issues as differences in geofence size, shape, and placement, no-parking zone categories, and the frequency of geofence modification. ResultsAcross the six scooter operators in Vienna, geofence coverage differed sharply over this time period, as did where scooter parking was prohibited (via no-parking zones). Categorization of no-parking zones indicate that the bulk are located around parks, pedestrianized corridors, and cultural institutions. Moreover, all six scooter operators modified their geofences during the course of this study (adding neighborhoods and removing others), which took place without any type of municipal approval or standardized disclosure to users. Four operators expanded their geofences, while two contracted them. ConclusionThese observations combine to establish a scootersharing profile of Vienna (matching regulations against spatial outcomes) that can serve as the basis for future comparison cases worldwide. Moreover, they indicate that there is likely a role for the public sector to provide oversight over the spatial dynamics of scootersharing, such as by establishing incentives to ensure outlying and/or transit-poor neighborhoods are not excluded, and via basic disclosure of geofences for the benefit of riders, transit planners, and trip-planning or wayfinding applications.

Seeing new in the familiar: intensifying aesthetic engagement with the city through new location-based technologies

ABSTRACTUnderstanding better the effects of the use of mobile apps to the use and appreciation of urban environments has been gaining more prominence as a research topic recently due to the increasing everyday use of these apps. Whether this type of digital mediation changes the lived experience is of interest in this article. The intention is to show that besides changing the prevailing practices and behaviour, new technologies also enhance and add positive value to the everyday urban experience. This positive experiential value is approached with the framework consisting of recent advances in philosophical urban and everyday aesthetics, which put emphasis on both familiarity and fun as important qualities that describe the everyday experience in urban environments. We claim that new digital tools increase the quality of fun when moving in familiar surroundings. Fun, understood through the lens of the aesthetic, precedes the experienced quality of playfulness. It alters the existing affordances of the urban environment in a way that make more complex aesthetic qualities emerge. The case examples are GPS-based wayfinding applications such as route planners and navigation tools for pedestrian use and related AR applications such as the popular game app Pokémon GO.

Comparing written and photo-based indoor wayfinding instructions through eye fixation measures and user ratings as mental effort assessments.

The use of mobile pedestrian wayfinding applications is gaining importance indoors. However, compared to outdoors, much less research has been conducted with respect to the most adequate ways to convey indoor wayfinding information to a user. An explorative study was conducted to compare two pedestrian indoor wayfinding applications, one text-based (SoleWay) and one image-based (Eyedog), in terms of mental effort. To do this, eye tracking data and mental effort ratings were collected from 29 participants during two routes in an indoor environment. The results show that both textual instructions and photographs can enable a navigator to find his/her way while experiencing no or very little cognitive effort or difficulties. However, these instructions must be in line with a user’s expectations of the route, which are based on his/her interpretation of the indoor environment at decision points. In this case, textual instructions offer the advantage that specific information can be explicitly and concisely shared with the user. Furthermore, the study drew attention to potential usability issues of the wayfinding aids (e.g. the incentive to swipe) and, as such, demonstrated the value of eye tracking and mental effort assessments in usability research.

GAWA – Manager for accessibility Wayfinding apps

With this work, we propose and validate a new service system in the context of Wayfinding services to improve the SmartCities mechanism: smart mobility, smart people, smart governance and smart living services. Steering and navigation tasks through an environment constitute an essential activity in our daily lives. They have a high degree of practical value in a variety of domains, such as public area design, architectural Wayfinding, geo-positioning and navigation, as well as urban planning and environmental design. At times, people with a visual impairment may also have problems in navigating autonomously and without personal assistance, especially in unknown environments (outdoor and indoor) using a smartphone. There could also be emergency situations in which the receiving of information in real time could be crucial. People with motor disabilities usually need information to avoid environments with obstacles, to arrive at a target or to manage touchscreens in daily activities and different environments. The use of landmarks is therefore vitally important in human navigation. Wayfinding systems must change, given that according to the United Nations (UN) Development Program, people with a disability represent around 10% of the world’s population, which is approximately 650 million people. Additionally, according to the World Health Organization, the world’s population of people 60 years of age and older has doubled since 1980 and is predicted to reach 2 billion by 2050. Most Wayfinding applications in the Smartphone market suffer from at least one of the following problems: the information is not dynamic, the design is not universal or the interface is not adapted to different users and preferences. Accordingly, apps do not currently have a universal design. The GAWA platform provides a universal and accessible solution to manage Wayfinding applications that focuses on people with a disability in outdoor and indoor environments in Smartcities. According to the results, the platform could be used for performing activities in their daily lives.

Accessible smartphones for blind users: A case study for a wayfinding system

While progress on assistive technologies have been made, some blind users still face several problems opening and using basic functionalities when interacting with touch interfaces. Sometimes, people with visual impairments may also have problems navigating autonomously, without personal assistance, especially in unknown environments. This paper presents a complete solution to manage the basic functions of a smartphone and to guide users using a wayfinding application. This way, a blind user could go to work from his home in an autonomous way using an adaptable wayfinding application on his smartphone. The wayfinding application combines text, map, auditory and tactile feedback for providing the information. Eighteen visually impaired users tested the application. Preliminary results from this study show that blind people and limited vision users can effectively use the wayfinding application without help. The evaluation also confirms the usefulness of extending the vibration feedback to convey distance information as well as directional information. The validation was successful for iOS and Android devices.

GAT: Platform for automatic context-aware mobile services for m-tourism

Despite the recent advances in mobile tourism systems, most of the wayfinding applications have still to deal with some problems: a huge amount of tourist information to manage, guidance for indoor and outdoor environments, and the need of users to have programming knowledge about many mobile phone platforms. In this study, we propose the GAT platform to overcome these problems. In GAT, users are able to generate wayfinding applications for indoor and outdoor environments through a web form without the need for programming skills, assisted by a system of automatic generation and update of points of interest.

Wayfinding choremes—a language for modeling conceptual route knowledge

The emergent interest in ontological and conceptual approaches to modeling route information results from new information technologies as well as from a multidisciplinary interest in spatial cognition. Linguistics investigates verbal route directions; cartography carries out research on route maps and on the information needs of map users; and computer science develops formal representations of routes with the aim to build new wayfinding applications. In concert with geomatics, ontologies of spatial domain knowledge are assembled while sensing technologies for location-aware wayfinding aids are developed simultaneously (e.g. cell phones, GPS-enabled devices or PDAs). These joint multidisciplinary efforts have enhanced cognitive approaches for route directions. In this article, we propose an interdisciplinary approach to modeling route information, the wayfinding choreme theory. Wayfinding choremes are mental conceptualizations of functional wayfinding and route direction elements. With the wayfinding choreme theory, we propose a formal treatment of (mental) conceptual route knowledge that is based on qualitative calculi and refined by behavioral experimental research. This contribution has three parts: First, we introduce the theory of wayfinding choremes. Second, we present term rewriting rules that are grounded in cognitive principles and can tailor route directions to different user requirements. Third, we exemplify various application scenarios for our approach.