Making Sense of Human Wayfinding: Review of Cognitive and Linguistic Knowledge for Personal Navigation with a New Research Direction

Abstract

This article provides a summary of the basic knowledge of human wayfinding found in the literature. It explores the historical roots of the theories (competence literature) and some of the more inductive empirical results (performance literature) of wayfinding. It will point out the limited scope of these investigations compared to the richness of actual human wayfinding, especially in describing the information needs for wayfinding. To address this lack of knowledge the use of the "sense-making" investigation method is suggested. The method is described and several empirical studies are proposed.