Actionable Guidance Outperforms Map and Compass Cues in Demanding Immersive VR Wayfinding

TL;DR

In demanding immersive VR navigation tasks, guidance cues that directly support movement decisions, like directional arrows, outperform map and compass cues, emphasizing the importance of intuitive, actionable interfaces.

Contribution

This study demonstrates that in immersive VR wayfinding, simple directional cues outperform complex spatial representations in supporting effective navigation.

Findings

Arrow guidance yields the best navigation performance.

Minimap guidance provides intermediate results.

Compass cues perform the worst in demanding VR navigation.

Abstract

Navigation aids are central to immersive virtual reality (VR) experiences that involve physical locomotion. Their effectiveness depends not only on how much spatial information they provide, but also on how directly that information supports movement decisions. We compared three common guidance techniques for immersive VR wayfinding: a directional arrow, a minimap, and a compass. In a controlled room-scale VR study with 42 participants completing 1008 trials, participants navigated to target landmarks in a time-pressured maze with reduced visibility and forced route replanning. Across behavioral and eye-tracking measures, arrow guidance produced the strongest navigation performance, minimap guidance yielded intermediate performance, and compass cues performed worst, suggesting that during immersive locomotion users benefit from guidance that can be interpreted rapidly while moving. These results suggest that in demanding immersive locomotion tasks, interfaces that translate spatial information directly into actionable movement cues can outperform richer but more interpretive spatial representations. Our findings highlight the importance of designing XR navigation interfaces that minimize the cognitive translation between spatial information and movement decisions.