OzCHI 2013: A Recommendation for Designing Mobile Pedestrian Navigation System in University...

Dian Tjondronegoro Michael Docherty Wei Song Joshua Fuglsang

A Recommendation for Designing Mobile Pedestrian Navigation System in University Campuses

Mobile Innovation Lab Queensland University of Technology

Brisbane, Australia

OzCHI 2013, 25 – 29 November at Flinders University, Adelaide Australia

Tony Wang

University Campuses

Mobility

Advanced Sensing

Weather-aware

Overview

• Review of existing Pedestrian Navigation Systems

• The Gaps

• Research Objectives

• QUT Nav: Mobile Pedestrian Navigation System

• Field Study Design

• Results & Contribution

Navigation Systems in Universities

Navigation Systems in Universities

University of Queensland University of Sydney

Navigation Systems on MobilePopular mobile navigation systems that support walking navigation:

Google Maps Apple Maps Whereis Maps

The ProblemThese pedestrian navigation systems (PNS):

• DO NOT provide walking paths at all

• DO NOT provide appropriate pedestrian paths

• DO NOT provide assistance on campus navigation based on user’s needs

How to avoid getting wet?

Focus Group

• To identify user-requirements when university students and staff are navigating around the campus.

• Conducted with 7 participants

• Current uni students & staff

• Frequent campus visitors ( > 3 times a week)

• They’re frequent users of smartphones ( > 2 years)

• Questionnaires + group discussion + a series of scenarios walkthrough were conducted

• Navigating through the campus

Key User Requirements

• Physical sign-posts were still the main method for campus navigation

• Participants confirmed some information are still missing, such as:

• Indoor and outdoor pedestrian routes

• Travel estimation information (distance + time)

• Walking routes that take weather condition into consideration

The Gap

• Lack of providing necessary information for pedestrians who are traveling in a university environment

• Popular mobile navigation systems and existing navigation systems in universities:

• DO NOT provide key information required by the pedestrians

• DO NOT provide appropriate interactions with the mobile pedestrian navigation system in complex environments (e.g. university campuses)

Research Questions1. What information is needed by the pedestrian

navigating in university environments?

2. How can we design a pedestrian navigation system to adopt pedestrians’ interactions and behaviours and provide better assistance while they are traveling in a university environment?

Study Objectives(1) Identify the information required by pedestrians

navigating through the university campuses.

Study Objectives(1) Identify the information needed by pedestrians


(2) Investigate pedestrians’ interactions and behaviours when using a mobile application for their campus navigation

Study Objectives(1) Identify the information needed by pedestrians



(3) Identify the implications for the design of a mobile pedestrian navigation system for university campuses.

Mobile Pedestrian Navigation SystemQUT Nav

Map Component

Route Component

Direction Engine

Field Study Design

• Design as empirical field test

• 8 Participants involved(who are not familiar with the test location)

• 9 Navigational tasks were performed

Queensland University of Technology Gardens Point Campus

Navigation Tasks

•First 6 Tasks

• Locating a specific building on the campus (e.g. locating the library building)

• Discovering how many levels a particular building has

• Figuring out the distance between a specific building and the user’ s location

•Last 3 Tasks

• Navigating from one specific university building to another within the campus.

• All the participants were required to complete the tasks in the same order.

Measures

• QUT Nav is designed to collect device logs with native iOS SDK (e.g. GPS accuracy in meters + GPS coordinates of the location movements)

• Questionnaires were used at the beginning & the end

• Front-facing camera to perform video recording*, as well as the interaction performed on the screen.

• During the navigation tasks “Think-aloud” protocol was applied for collecting data on user’s thoughts.

* The video recording feature was implemented using CaptureRecord framework for iOS.

Measures

• One researcher followed all 8 participants throughout the campus walkabouts, and observed their reactions to the information received from the smartphone using an audio recorder.

• This provides us with in-depth analysis on participant’s:

• Interaction behaviours

•Location movements

•Emotion and feelings

Experimental Design

• Study is verified by Observation & User Experiences

!

• Observation:

• Accompanied by the same researcher throughout

• Kept a fair distance (5m) away from the participant

!

• User Experiences is collected through:

• Questionnaire

• Think-aloud protocol

• Interviews

Aim of the Field Study(1) Identify the information needed by pedestrians



(3) Identify the implications for the design of a mobile pedestrian navigation system for university campuses.

Results & Analysis

• All participants completed the tasks successfully

!

• Based on the data collected from questionnaires, interview, observation, video recordings:We were able to retrieve results for:

(1) Information required by participants in PNS.

(2) User interactions & behaviours

… In the context of pedestrian navigation in university campuses using mobile devices.

Information Required in PNS1. Building Entrances

2. Travel prediction information

3. Coloured routes

4. Accurate indoor location

5. Route Choices

Information Required in PNS1. Building Entrances

6 of 8 participants (75%) pointed out different building entrances mattered to them when they are navigating on campus.

“If there is a lift, then what is the point of taking stairs. That’s in my personal opinion. However, some people would prefer stairs.”

“I change my mind depending on how tired, how lazy, how time-limited I am when I’ m traveling.”

Information Required in PNS2. Travel Prediction Information

Estimated Distance Estimated Time Arrival Time

Information Required in PNS2. Travel Prediction Information

Usefulness of travel estimation information (p >0.05)

Information Required in PNS3. Coloured routes

Sheltered Routes

Unsheltered Routes

Information Required in PNS4. Accurate indoor location

!

!

All participants pointed out that their location was represented inaccurately and inconsistently, especially when they were going through a building.

Information Required in PNS5. Route Choices

Usefulness scores for different types route choices

Type of Route Mean SD Sig. (2-tailed)

Shortest 4.75 0.463 0.000

Sheltered 4.38 1.061 0.008

Illuminated 3.88 1.642 0.175

Crowded 3.50 1.309 0.316

Less Climbs 3.63 1.188 0.180

(p < 0.05)

User Interaction with Mobile PNS1. Willingness of Using Mobile Application

2. Route Overview

3. Map Rotation based on User Orientation

4. User Preferences Affects their Walking Choices

User Interaction with Mobile PNS1. Willingness of Using Mobile Application

7 of 8 participants said it was easy to use the mobile application on the iPhone 5, and felt it had helped them to navigate around the campus.

They also expressed they were very likely to use app again in the future.

User Interaction with Mobile PNS2. Route Overview

7 of 8 participants indicated in the interview that seeing the whole pedestrian route before they started their navigation gave them a good idea on how they should navigate through the campus.

User Interaction with Mobile PNS3. Map Rotation based on User Orientation

7 out of 8 participants tried rotating the mobile device physically to match their location with the surroundings.

User Interaction with Mobile PNS4. User Preferences Affects their Walking Choices

!

QUT Nav provides shortest path to reach to destination.

5 out of 8 participants did not follow the given route, because it felt unfamiliar to them.


One (1) participant purposely avoided walking on the grass.


One (1) participant purposely avoided walking on the grass.“I knew it was raining before and the grass is still wet and I didn’t want to get my shoes dirty in the mud.”

- he said

ConclusionWe were able to…

(1) Identify the information needed by pedestrians navigating through the university campuses.


9 Design recommendations for creating mobile pedestrian navigation systemsfor university campuses.

Design Recommendations1. The map should provide rotation based on user’s

orientation.

Design Recommendations2. Provide shortest and sheltered route as walking

route options.

Design Recommendations3. Other location sensing techniques may be needed

to improve location sensing on modern smartphones (e.g. iPhone 5).

4. The location of the building entrances and entrance types should also be considered when generating pedestrian route.

Design Recommendations5. The map must have zoom and pan features.

Design Recommendations6. Sheltered and unsheltered pedestrian routes

should be represented by different colours.

Design Recommendations7. The representation of the building icons should be

differentiate with their names or alphabetical letters represented.

✔ ⨯

Design Recommendations8. The system must allow

users to preview the entire pedestrian route before the start of their navigation.

Design Recommendations9. User preferences has an affect on pedestrian’ s

walking choices

• Unfamiliarity

• Time consuming

• Personal preferences

Future Work

• QUT Nav has been redesigned and refined.

• Published to the App Store - http://j.mp/qutnav

• Feedback were collected in real environments

• More in-depth field study was conducted with 40 participants

• Focusing on Navigation Performance & User Experiences

Thank You!

@svveet

[email protected]

QUT Nav

OzCHI 2013: A Recommendation for Designing Mobile Pedestrian Navigation System in University...

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