Abstract
This thesis reports on an investigation into naive or first time wayfinding within virtual environments, It reports on a study that examines the effectiveness of maps and landmarks as navigational aids to enhance naive, or first time, wayfinding performance within a virtual environment (VE). More specifically a photo-realistic, desktop, QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) virtual environment was used. This study also attempts to explain any differences found in the performance of the naive wayfinding,
In Phase I of this research, a quantitative experiment was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the map and landmark navigational aids used to enhance naive wayfinding within a QTVR virtual museum, Fifty-nine participants took part in the experiment in which they had to perform naïve searches within a virtual museum and once they found the objects they were instructed to find their way back to the start point, The participants were separated into four treatments, map, landmark, map/landmark and control (no navigational aids). The findings of Phase I suggest the effectiveness of the navigational aids is dependent on the type of naive wayfinding task involved. Landmark navigational aids, in the form of signs, were most effective when the task involves finding an object or place, while the map navigational aids were most effective when the task involves finding your way back to a particular point within the virtual environment.
In Phase II of this research, a qualitative study was conducted in an attempt to explain the differences identified in Phase I, To achieve this a Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) was conducted using an adapted version of the Critical Decision Method (CDM), so as elicit any difficulties the participants may have had with the QTVR environment while performing the experiment in Phase I. Activity Theory (AT) was then used to identify the breakdowns within the activity and the subsequent focus shifts and strategies used to overcome the breakdowns.
In doing so it documented eight common breakdowns. In analysing these eight breakdowns, several plausible explanations were identified for the naïve wayfinding performance differences when map and navigational aids were used. The results from the Activity Theory analysis also indicated flaws in the design of the QTVR museum. These flaws can be used as guidelines in the design of future QTVR virtual environments.