Wayfinding through an unfamiliar environment
Yasmine Boumenir, Fanny Georges, Jeremy Valentin, Guy Rebillard,, Birgitta Dresp-Langley

TL;DR
This study compares the effectiveness of 2D maps, 3D virtual environments, and real-world experience in aiding navigation through unfamiliar environments, revealing limitations of virtual aids in complex routes.
Contribution
It provides empirical evidence on how different navigation aids influence wayfinding performance in real-world settings.
Findings
Real-world experience led to successful navigation in both simple and complex routes.
3D virtual environments were ineffective for complex route navigation.
Virtual 3D aids may misrepresent distances, impairing landmark-based navigation.
Abstract
Strategies for finding one's way through an unfamiliar environment may be helped by computer generated 2D maps, 3D virtual environments, or other navigation aids. The relative effectiveness of 2D and 3D virtual navigation aids was investigated. The wayfinding experiments (navigation tests) were conducted in a large, park-like environment. 24 participants (12 men, 12 women; age range = 22-50 years; M=32, SD = 7.4) were divided into three groups of four individuals per gender, who 1) explored a computer generated 2D map of the given route prior to navigation, 2) received a silent guided tour by means of an interactive 3D virtual representation, or 3) acquired direct experience of the real-world route through a silent guided tour where they were accompanied by a human individual who had expert knowledge of all the routes in the park. Participants from the different preparation groups then…
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