Investigating of perceived wayfinding based on the effects of zoning layout in games

Abstract

Denne undersøgelse har undersøgt forskellige typer af wayfinding -teknikker og elementer, der kan bruges til at hjælpe folk med at navigere i både den virkelige verden og i virtuelle miljøer. Ud over tre økologiske modeller blev to af dem (flere kerner og sektors teori) designet og testet for at se, om modellernes reguleringslayout påvirker deltagerens måde at finde. Forskningsgruppen indsamlede 41 deltagere (20 i kontrol og 21 i eksperimentel) og udførte en hypotesetest baseret på denne prøvestørrelse. Mann-Whitney U-testen gav forskningsgruppen en p-værdi på 0,394, hvilket betyder, at vi ikke kunne afvise nulhypotesen. Der er således ingen signifikant forskel i spillerens opfattede wayfinding mellem sektoren og kernerlayoutet. På trods af at kernelayout er mindre end sektors layout, får svarene fra kernedeltagere flere omtaler af steder som vartegn og distrikter oftere på 4,2. Forskningsgruppen har mistanke om, at dette kan skyldes de ekstra kanter og distrikter i kernelayoutet, som er elementer fra de lynchiske elementer, der hjælper folk med at navigere i et miljø. Hvis dette er tilfældet, ville det være interessant at se i fremtidige undersøgelser, hvis kernelayoutet er bedre til at konstruere et mentalt kort, end sektorteorien er. Baseret på de indsamlede data ser de to betingelser ud til at have en positiv eller negativ effekt på deltagernes vejfindingsevne. Nogle af dataene indikerer imidlertid, at der kan være en vis forskel mellem konstruktionen af deltagerens mentale kort og den tilstand, de spillede.

This study has explored different types of wayfinding techniques and elements that can be used to help people navigate in both the real world and in virtual environments. As well as three ecological models, two of them (multiple nuclei and sector theory) were designed and tested to see if the zoning layout of the models affects the participant's wayfinding ability. The research group gathered 41 participants (20 in control and 21 in experimental) and conducted a hypothesis test based on this sample size. The MannWhitney U test gave the research group a p-value of 0.394, which means we failed to reject the null hypothesis. Thus, there is no significant difference in player's perceived wayfinding between the sector and nuclei layout. Despite nuclei layout being smaller than sector layout, the responses from nuclei participants do get more mentions of places like landmarks and districts more frequently of 112 in total and an average of 5.6 than sector layout where the responses mentioned a total of 90 places with an average of 4.2. The research group suspects this might be due to the extra edges and districts in the nuclei layout, which are elements from the Lynchian elements that help people navigate throughout an environment. If this is the case, then it would be interesting to see in future studies if the nuclei layout is better for constructing a mental map than the sector theory is. Based on the data gathered, the two conditions seem to have neither a positive nor negative effect on the participants' wayfinding ability. However, some of the data does indicate that there might be some difference between the construction of the participant's mental map and the condition they were playing.

A master thesis from Aalborg University

Investigating of perceived wayfinding based on the effects of zoning layout in games