To Örebro University

Decision points in a wayfinding path are considered not only the intersections but also changes in geometry and in directions, merging of paths, or transitions. Carpman and Simmon (1986) pinpoint the need for environmental cues in these points where users’ confusion arises. In this study, we investigate the morphology and the manifest cues of the decision points in relation to the visuo-locomotive behaviour of users recorded during a wayfinding case-study conducted in two healthcare buildings at the Parkland Hospital (Dallas).

We collect and analyse the embodied visuo-locomotive experience of 25 participants, using eye-tracking, external cameras, behavioural mapping, questionnaires, interviews, and orientations tasks. In our multi-modal qualitative analysis, founded in Spatial Reasoning, Cognitive Vision, and Environmental Psychology, we focus on the aspects of visual perception, decision making, orientation, and spatial knowledge acquisition. The comparison between users’ transition in eight decision points involves correlations between occurrences of confusion-related events, detection and categorisation of manifest cues, navigation performance, as well as visual attention analysis in relation to the available spatial features.

Primary results suggest that (1) stop and looking-around behaviour mostly emerge in the decision points; (2) behaviour that indicates confusion is mostly encoded in narrow and enclosed decision points; (3) transitional spaces intensify visual search; (4) visibility ahead of time, and visual disruptions affect the visuo-locomotive behaviour; and (5) detection of manifest cues is affected by the morphology of decision points. The correlations between behavioural and morphological data encoded to conceptual language can be useful as a baseline for computationally-driven behavioural analysis.