Placement of You-Are-Here Maps: An Empirical Study using Multiple Approaches Chelsea Gilliam, Rui Li, Brian Chorman, Alexander Klippel, Jinlong Yang

Background You-Are-Here (YAH) maps are vital tools for navigation inside unfamiliar environments. How can we assess the influence of the placement of YAH maps on wayfinding in buildings? 2

Research Objectives  Analyze Library Environment  Visibility  Connectivity  Layout Complexity  Add map placement to analysis to assess areas of map influence  Conduct behavioral experiments to assess human wayfinding performance in these environments 3

Analysis of Library Environment 4 Visibility Analysis using Depthmap Software. This is the output of a visibility graph analysis.

Analysis of Library Environment 5 Axial maps showing connectivity. Areas of higher visibility have higher connectivity.

Analysis of Library Environment 6 Layout Complexity was calculated using Inter-Connection Density (ICD). ICD is a global measure of a floor’s overall layout complexity.

Placement of YAH Maps 7 Voronoi Tessellation of Central Stacks Employee only stairwell Public access stairwell

Placement of YAH Maps 8 Voronoi Tessellation of Paterno Library Floor 2 Floor 5

Behavioral Experiments 24 students who had never visited the campus library before and 28 librarians were asked to find a book in each of the library environments. Their paths were recorded via glasses with an attached camera. 9

Behavioral Experiments 10 X “X” marks the spot! Novices X Experts

Behavioral Experiments “X” marks the spot! Novices Experts X X

Behavioral Experiments Novices “X” marks the spot! Experts XX

X Spatial Interpolation 13 Novices Maximum number of map views Minimum number of map views (employee-only staircase) Experts X

Spatial Interpolation 14 Novices X Experts X

Spatial Interpolation 15 Novices Experts X X X X

Findings 16 Good! -Small area covered per map -Signage used to supplement YAH maps -High visibility and connectivity -Lower Inter-Connection Density Novice wayfinding similar to expert wayfinding Bad! -Large area covered per map -Low visibility and connectivity -High Inter-Connection Density Distinct difference between novice wayfinding and expert wayfinding

Findings Conclusions 17 Current Suggested Adding more YAH maps along traveled routes may improve novice wayfinding inside the Central Stacks.

Acknowledgements 18 Thank you to Rui Li, Dr. Alexander Klippel, and the Human Factors in GIScience Lab at Penn State. Research funding provided by Penn State Schreyer Honors College