User preferences, information transactions and location-based services: A study of urban pedestrian wayfinding
Introduction
The rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) is providing opportunities for innovation in location-based services (LBS). LBS are regarded as the delivery of information and services tailored to the current or some projected location and context of the user (Brimicombe & Li, 2006). LBS have been researched from various perspectives across a range of disciplines such as mobile computing and networking, positioning systems, distributed services and components, database and data content, Geographical Information Science (GIScience) and human computer interaction. Ultimately, the utility of LBS will be measured by their ability to meet user needs. Thus one of the developing research themes focuses on user aspects of LBS. User aspects have been considered in designing, building and evaluating LBS applications and systems with the emphasis on functionality in providing information and services. However, there has been little research towards understanding what is useful and what is perceived as problematic from a user-perspective (Kjeldskov & Graham, 2003). On the other hand, there is a substantial body of research on human–environment interaction from a cognitive perspective, which has emphasised individual spatial behaviour for acquiring and processing information (Golledge and Stimson, 1997, Kitchin and Blades, 2002). Yet to date there has been little consideration of technological elements in this interaction. In LBS research, such a technological element is present as an information source delivered through a mobile device.
The research presented in this paper considers user aspects of LBS from the perspective of the interaction and information transactions between three elements: environments, individuals and their mobile devices. A dynamic interaction model is proposed with the purpose of understanding how users acquire information for completing spatial tasks when using mobile devices within environments. To implement this conceptual model, an approach has been developed using immersive virtual reality as test settings, simulated LBS applications in mobile devices and automated and semi-automated data collection methods. In this way, details of the interaction and information transactions can be captured in real time. Based on the proposed conceptual model and implementation approach, experimentation on pedestrian urban wayfinding has been designed and carried out in order to investigate user preferences and information requirements using LBS. Two aspects of such preferences have been studied in particular: differences in user preferences for types of information required (such as route information and map information) for completing wayfinding tasks and consistency of user preferences in response to wayfinding situations along routes. User preferences have also been studied in relation to the surrounding spatial configuration of the environment.
Section snippets
User aspect of LBS
One aspect of LBS research into user needs investigates how to present spatial information and semantic content to users in order to meet their requirements. A number of themes are being researched in this aspect relating to visualisation, graphical modelling and the usability for mobile devices and services (Brunner and Neudeck, 2002, Reichenbacher, 2003, Wintges, 2002). There are studies on the presentation of geometric and semantic information, as well as scale-dependency resulting from the
Method
In this section, a method is introduced for implementing the conceptual interaction model to investigate user preferences in their information requirements. Studying the interaction between environments, individuals on the move and mobile devices poses a number of challenges. To begin with, a real-world environment usually encompasses a larger geographical area for movement compared with a laboratory- or desktop-based situation. A real-world environment is difficult to control and can easily
The test environment setup
The aim of the test environment is to provide realistic stable settings in which individuals can use LBS through mobile devices to assist them in completing wayfinding tasks, and during which user interaction and information transactions can be observed and recorded. Therefore, a test environment was set up which comprised of three main parts: a VR urban model, a mobile device providing simulated LBS applications and software for recording individual behaviour and interaction with LBS.
Firstly,
Results and discussion
Data from the experiments can be classified into four main categories:
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movement tracking with time of each participant: Mi(t, x, y);
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PDA usage: Pi(t, Ptype, Pmode, Paccess);
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observational data: Oi(t, BPDA, Btcomplete, Bmove, Bconfidence);
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supplementary data on participant self-reported spatial ability: SBi(Ssd, Smu, Sgsb, Ssa); where i = 1–26 participants; t is time recorded in seconds; Ptype, Pmode and Paccess are respectively the type of information acquired from the PDA, the mode by which it was acquired and
Conclusion
In this paper, the research on a proposed conceptual model and the implementation method has been discussed. This conceptual interaction model has brought together three main elements: individuals, environments and mobile technologies. The focus of the model is on the explicit dynamic interaction and information transactions between the three elements. Based on this dynamic interaction model, information requirements for LBS, at individual level, have been investigated. This model has been
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