Orientation and Navigation in 3D User Interfaces: Is It Like in the Real World?

Speaker
Avi Parush
Visiting Scientist, Industrial Management and Engineering Faculty, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology

When
-

Where
Newell-Simon Hall 1305 (Michael Mauldin Auditorium)

Description

The introduction of 3D user interfaces, particularly those with a real-place metaphor, is based on the assumption that we can apply our real world spatial cognition to the virtual world. Research literature indicates that spatial cognition is based on three kinds of knowledge: landmarks, routes, and surveys (map-like), which can be acquired with the aid of maps and route lists. In this study, orientation and navigation performance in a 3D user interface was explored as a function of those two navigational aids: a route list and a map, and two design configurations: with and without landmarks. Preliminary analysis of the data indicates that the impact of the presence vs. absence of landmarks and the navigational aids on orientation and navigation in a 3D user interface is somewhat different from the real world. The practical and theoretical implications of those differences are discussed.

Speaker's Bio

Avi Parush completed his PhD in Cognitive Psychology and graduated in 1984 from McGill University, Canada. From then on he was working as a human factors engineer and user interface designer in a variety of domains ranging from the bridge of an icebreaker and the cockpit of a jet fighter to medical and telecomm systems, to mobile devices and speech-based interfaces. Avi is the co-founder of LaHIT, one of Israel’s leading usability consulting firms, and founded and chairs the Israeli local SIGCHI. For the past four years he has been a senior adjunct lecturer at Tel Aviv University, and a visiting scientist at the Technion where he teaches and conducts HCI-related research projects.

Host
Brad Myers