Uncertainty and mental workload among wayfinding strategies

Abstract

Taiwan welcomed 8 million international visitors in 2013. In a study by Chang Hsuan Hsuan [3], subjects had 38 % failure rate in three wayfinding tests. It is obvious that travelers require guidance from time to time during the journey. Normally, travelers use maps; however once feeling uncertainty, they would seek for excessive reassurance from others [2]. This study summarized wayfinding strategies into two kinds. The first one is “turn-by-turn strategy”, in which travelers ask for directions as primary wayfinding information. The second is “map strategy”, in which visitors employ a map for wayfinding. As providing tourists with a piece of map seems to be a regular practice, this study intended to challenge it by examining efficiency, frequency of information inquiry and mental workload in the wayfinding journeys. In the experiment, we employed “participant observation” and recorded wayfinding process of subjects such as wayfinding behavior and reassurance time and location. Research findings are as follows: Those using “turn-by-turn strategy” save time of journey, in other words, they are faster reach the destination than that of “map strategy”. Those using “turn-by-turn strategy” inquired wayfinding information less frequently, which means less frequently bothered by intolerance of uncertainty. Locating the position on the map is the major factor for those applying “map strategy” who have high frequency of reading map, and minor for navigation.