Ease Wayfinding

Nori and colleagues probed how design can promote effective wayfinding via a virtual reality-based project.  They report that their “results suggest that navigation could be facilitated by reducing anxiety and the spatial complexity of the environment. . . . Spatial anxiety is particularly important for navigation and reflects feelings of apprehension and fear regarding navigating an environment, orienting oneself, and performing spatial tasks.” Centrally located you-are-here maps, for example, might reduce spatial anxiety.

Bredmose and colleagues studied how design can support the movement of blind and visually impaired people (BVIP) through a space.  They report that “tactile elements were assessed as being very important. . . . the visible contrast elements were assessed rather high with regard to orientation in the urban environment. . . .

Qi, Lu, and Chen’s research confirms the wayfinding-related findings of previous studies; being able to see the outdoors as we walk inside a building helps us keep track of where we are and find our way to a desired location.  They report that “General hospitals in China always present significant wayfinding problems due to their sizes and complexity. Poor wayfinding often leads to a frustrating and stressful user experience. . . . We conducted an experiment in which 117 college students, aged 18–33 . . . performed two tasks in virtual reality environments of outpatient clinics. . . .

Coutrot and colleagues set out to learn more about how where we grew up influences our sense of direction; what they’ve learned may help explain previously baffling programming research findings, for example.  The Coutrot-lead team report that “how the environment in which one grew up affects later cognitive abilities remains poorly understood. Here we used a cognitive task embedded in a video game to measure non-verbal spatial navigation ability in 397,162 people from 38 countries across the world.

Jiang and colleagues have found, via a study using immersive virtual environment (IVE) techniques, that views of green spaces through windows can make it easier to move from one part of a building to another effectively and efficiently;  their findings are readily applicable to non-healthcare space types.  The team reports that “Participants’ wayfinding performances were interpreted using several indicators, including task completion, duration, walking distance, stop, sign-viewing, and route selection. . . .