I want to view it my way - Interfaces to mobile maps should

adapt to the user’s orientation skills

Stefan Bienk, Markus Kattenbeck, Bernd Ludwig, Manuel Müller, Christina Ohm

University Regensburg

Search For the Best Suited Interface

• Searching for an interface for pedestrian navigation systems

• Three views: Bird’s Eye, Egocentric, Combined• Involved the user’s sense of direction• Required test subjects to repeatedly locate

items on the map

Views

Design Decisions

• Scalability – used land survey data provided by Bavarian government

• Selectable Objects – make all building on map clickable

• Simplicity – use hardware of the smartphone only, so did not render details like windows

• Perspective – adapt to user’s needs

Testing

• One undergraduate class was instructed to recruit 2 test users

• 112 test users (mean age 23.4)• Used either their own Android phones or their

respective undergraduate supervisor’s phone• Randomly divided into 3 groups, one for each

perspective

Task• 11 potential landmarks in the city of Ratisbon• Landmark classification based off of:– represented as a geometrical object or not– belongs to a chain store or not– has a signboard or not– Index of LM (1-11)

• Given 15 minutes to familiarize with interface

Findings

• Bird’s Eye: Best for Bad and Intermediate SoD• Egocentric: Best for Good SoD• Switchable: Best overall times

Findings

• Well-oriented users benefit most from egocentric view, and had more trouble with bird’s eye view than poorly oriented users

• When changing one question on the questionnaire :