Using Lighting to Enhance Wayfinding Shawn Blake James Hall Samantha Sissel December 15, 2011

Outline Background Method Results and Discussion Limitations Future Work Conclusion

Background

Background Wayfinding: the art of using landmarks, signage, pathways, and environmental cues to help first time visitors navigate and experience a site without confusion Taylor and Socov (1974): classic light cues experiment Designed to show how many people would navigate around a barrier using light cues Both sides lit, 69% went to the right Left side higher illumination, 75% went to the left

Background Yorks and Ginthner (1987): effects that wall lighting has on desk selection Three desks: one near the door, one in the middle, and one at the far side of the room Room illumination equal, participant sat at desk closest to the door Back wall had higher illumination, participant crossed the room to sit at the desk at the far side of the room Experiments using wayfinding cues have not been conducted using a VE

Background Wayfinding is a common issue when exploring virtual environments

Background Goal: To determine if lighting is an effective, yet unobtrusive means of guiding the user through the environment

Method

Method Screenshots: Source SDK Hammer Editor and Garry’s Mod Initial design of experiment had more screenshot variations Decision to have a 3 x 5 model Both Sides Lit, No Sign Left Side Lit, No Sign Right Side Lit, No Sign Both Sides Lit, Arrow Left Left Side Lit, Arrow Left Right Side Lit, Arrow Left Both Sides Lit, Arrow Right Left Side Lit, Arrow Right Right Side Lit, Arrow Right Both Sides Lit, Exit Left Left Side Lit, Exit Left Right Side Lit, Exit Left Both Sides Lit, Exit Right Left Side Lit, Exit Right Right Side Lit, Exit Right

Method

Method 20 participants Within-group study, 15 screenshots Procedure: 7 females 13 males Within-group study, 15 screenshots Procedure: Calibrate eye tracker Explained experiment while participant viewed a control screenshot Participant made a decision—travel to the left or to the right of the barrier—by clicking the corresponding direction for each screenshot

Results

Results Images Towards Light/Predicted Path Away from Light 13 7 16 3 Both Sides Lit, No Sign 13 7 Both Sides Lit, Arrow Left* 16 3 Both Sides Lit, Arrow Right 15 5 Both Sides Lit, Exit Left 4 Both Sides Lit, Exit Right Left Side Lit, No Sign 18 2 Left Side Lit, Arrow Left 19 1 Left Side Lit, Arrow Right* 12 6 Left Side Lit, Exit Left Left Side Lit, Exit Right* 11 Right Side Lit, No Sign* Right Side Lit, Arrow Left* Right Side Lit, Arrow Right 17 Right Side Lit, Exit Left* Right Side Lit, Exit Right* * Some participants’ mouse clicks not reported, resulting in inconclusive data

Results Significant difference in the direction participants chose to travel? Performed a paired t-test 95% confidence interval P-value=0.0000 Significant difference Significant difference in time taken based on signage presented? Performed a one-way ANOVA P-value=0.343 Not a significant difference

Results Relationship between where they looked and chosen direction?

Results Difference between the number of males and females choosing to go toward the light/predicted path? Performed a paired t-test 95% confidence interval P-value=0.000 Significant difference Difference between the amount of time taken to make a decision based on gender? P-value=0.006

Results Light Left, Exit Right Light Left Light Right, Exit Left Light Right, Arrow Left

Limitations

Limitations Unable to actually let participants navigate through a virtual environment Tobii studio required us to strictly use screenshots instead of a continuous video stream Used screenshots of a virtual environment Participants’ decisions would have been more realistic Their emotions may have played a greater factor in the decision making process

Future Work and Conclusions

Future Work Retrospective “Think Aloud” Videotape participants in action Accurate time data can still collected Assists with determining why participants made certain decisions Further research on gender differences in decision making Develop a program that supports a gaming environment Interesting to see how participants react to various obstructions Impact on time to make a decision? Will participants still choose to go toward the light?

Conclusion Hypothesis: more people will choose the lighted path We accepted the hypothesis based on experimental results Signage played a factor in the decision making process However, lighting was found to be a more significant wayfinding technique

References Antonakaki, T. 2006. Lighting within the Social Dimension of Space: A Case Study at the Royal Festival Hall, London. In Proceedings of the Space Syntax and Spatial Cognition Workshop, (Sep. 2006) Biesek Design. 2010. Definition of Wayfinding. http://www.biesek.com/whatis.html Darken, R. P., and Sibert, J. L. 1996. Wayfinding Strategies and Behaviors in Large Virtual Worlds. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Common Ground, ACM 142-149. Darken, R. P., and Sibert, J. L. 1996. Navigating Large Virtual Spaces. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 8,1 (Jan./Feb./Mar. 1996), 49-72. Lundeen, R. 2009. L4D Art Direction Part 2: Stylized Darkness. In Left 4 Dead Blog. Smith, H. and Worch, M. 2010. What Happened Here: Environmental Storytelling. In Proceedings of Game Developers Conference 2010. Taylor, L. H., and Socov, E. W. 1974. The Movement of People Toward Light. Journal of IES, (Apr. 74), 237-241. Vembar, D., Iyengar, N., Duchowski, A., Clark, K., Hewitt, J. and Pauls, K. 2003. Effect of Visual Cues on Human Performance in Navigating through a Virtual Maze. In Proceedings of Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments 2004. Yorks, P., and Ginthner, D. 1987. Wall Lighting Placement: Effect on Behavior in the Work Environment. Lighting Design and Application, 17, 7 (Jul.), 30-37.

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