In a large scale environment humans rely on their mental representations cognitive maps to solve navigational problems. To approach the understanding of how humans acquire, process, and utilize information from the environment, three groups of participants in this study performed several experiments associated with finding their way in a previously unknown environment. Experimental tasks included route retracing, pointing to previously visited locations, and a questionnaire regarding wayfinding strategies and cognitive map development. Each of three groups of participants was in one of three unique conditions: 1. learning and retracing with navigational landmarks indicating right and left turns at decision points; 2. during route retracing only generic landmarks were present at decision points (landmarks indicating left and right were present during learning but replaced during retracing); and 3. no landmarks were present during route retracing (landmarks indicating left and right were present during learning but removed before retracing started). Results supported the hypothesis that during the initial stages of visiting an unknown environment we build metric knowledge together with non-metric knowledge associated with the broad categories of landmark and route knowledge. In addition, the environment plays an important role in wayfinding performance and that characteristics of the environment contribute differently to the development of our cognitive map. Last but not least, the strategies humans use to solve wayfinding problems in a novel environment are not based on an individual type of environmental knowledge; in fact, we switch between different types of environmental knowledge when necessary. Shifting between strategies appears to be from more familiar environmental knowledge to less familiar knowledge. In particular, participants from group 3 (no landmarks during the retracing period) were more likely to walk off-route during retracing but exhibited more accurate metric knowledge of the environment. Based on the results of this experiment, they combined route- and survey-based strategies in wayfinding and switched from the most familiar knowledge to a less familiar strategy.

In a large scale environment humans rely on their mental representations cognitive maps to solve navigational problems. To approach the understanding of how humans acquire, process, and utilize information from the environment, three groups of participants in this study performed several experiments associated with finding their way in a previously unknown environment. Experimental tasks included route retracing, pointing to previously visited locations, and a questionnaire regarding wayfinding strategies and cognitive map development. Each of three groups of participants was in one of three unique conditions: 1. learning and retracing with navigational landmarks indicating right and left turns at decision points; 2. during route retracing only generic landmarks were present at decision points (landmarks indicating left and right were present during learning but replaced during retracing); and 3. no landmarks were present during route retracing (landmarks indicating left and right were present during learning but removed before retracing started). Results supported the hypothesis that during the initial stages of visiting an unknown environment we build metric knowledge together with non-metric knowledge associated with the broad categories of landmark and route knowledge. In addition, the environment plays an important role in wayfinding performance and that characteristics of the environment contribute differently to the development of our cognitive map. Last but not least, the strategies humans use to solve wayfinding problems in a novel environment are not based on an individual type of environmental knowledge; in fact, we switch between different types of environmental knowledge when necessary. Shifting between strategies appears to be from more familiar environmental knowledge to less familiar knowledge. In particular, participants from group 3 (no landmarks during the retracing period) were more likely to walk off-route during retracing but exhibited more accurate metric knowledge of the environment. Based on the results of this experiment, they combined route- and survey-based strategies in wayfinding and switched from the most familiar knowledge to a less familiar strategy.

Prior research about wayfinding has found that females tend to employ a single strategy based on landmarks, where males are more versatile, using a dual strategy of landmarks and global orientation information such as cardinal directions (Lawton, 2010). It was proposed that this difference occurs due to males’ better sense of direction, which would deliver more trustworthy indications of current heading. Since males’ versatility has often been linked with better navigation performance (for example Sandstrom, Kaufman, & Huettel, 1998; Saucier et al., 2002) this study sought to contribute to the growing body of literature on methods of training to increase sense of direction (such as Hund and Minarik, 2006; Hund & Nazarczuk, 2009). An experimental procedure was used to investigate the possibility that the provision of reliable cardinal direction heading updates to participants would lead to a dual strategy for orientation in those that usually use a single strategy based on landmarks. This was done in an urban navigation context, with the main dependent variable being level of recall for route structure. Using the Santa Barbara Sense of Direction Scale, the study revealed that males had a higher self-reported sense of direction than females. / Additionally, no sex differences in performance were found on the route structure recall tasks. Rather than being due to females’ use of a dual wayfinding strategy, however, this was interpreted as an artefact of the use of a video in the procedure, which involved watching someone else navigating along a route. This is supported by another finding, that conditions containing cardinal directions or landmark spatial references did not produce higher route structure recall than the control condition. Since the procedure did not require participants to navigate through a real, or virtual, environment, it may not have been perceived as a disorientation threat. Due to this, they may not have employed wayfinding strategies, accounting for the poor influence of the spatial reference conditions and the lack of sex difference. The study is therefore viewed as an ideal candidate for replication by future investigators, who may wish to compare performance using a task where participants are required to deploy wayfinding strategies.

The aim of this thesis is to gain knowledge about how personnel at public libraries describes how they work with visual communication. That is, working with signs, posters, maps, digital information on monitors and so on, so that the users easily will find their way around the library and get aware of the libraries various services and upcoming events. To be able to communicate with the users is important for all institutions and there might be challenges involved in that. Research shows that visual communication must be evident so that the users understand it. It is also important that the visual communication is not to vague or to rich. Wayfinding is a problem solving process in three parts which includes: search, decide and move, with the objective to get from point A to point B. The Danish professor Per Mollerups nine strategies for wayfinding is used as a tool to analyze the empiric material. The strategies include track following, route following, educated seeking, inference, screening, aiming, map-reading, compassing and social navigation. This study is based on five qualitative semi-structured interviews with personnel from five different public libraries. The results shows that the informants believe that visual communication is an important part of the profession, but that they neither have the time nor the right knowledge to make a thorough job.

Detta examensarbete har skrivits inom ämnet informationsdesign, som en del av kandidatprogrammet Informationsdesign med inriktning mot Rumslig gestaltning. Platsen som har studerats är Folkets park i Malmö, som i skrivande stund står inför en större ombyggnation. Detta examensarbete har både tagit utgångspunkt i parkens nuvarande, samt föreslagna utformning, vilket gjort att jag under processen behövt växla mellan dessa två olika perspektiv. Syftet med examensarbetet har varit att ta fram ett koncept som kan förbättra målgruppens möjligheter att orientera sig i parken efter den föreslagna ombyggnationen.   Genom teorier, platsanalyser och intervjuer har människors beteendemönster vid informationssökning i rumsliga sammanhang undersökts, med särskild fokus på hur detta kan fungera i Folkets park. Dessa studier ligger till grund för det designförslag som presenteras i examensarbetet. Designförslaget är ett koncept som avser att ge en tydlig bild av vad parken innehåller, tydliggöra riktningar vid förflyttning mellan olika platser, samt indikera funktion. Konceptet bygger på principer för wayshowing och består mer specifikt av vägledande formelement, som utformats och placerats där de kan förtydliga vägen till parkens lekplatser för målgruppen. / This thesis has been conducted within the field of information design, as a part of the bachelor program Information Design with specialization in Spatial Design. The location that has been studied is the park “Folkets Park” in Malmö, Sweden, which at the moment currently is facing a major rebuilding. This thesis is hence based on both the parks current and proposed design, which has made it necessary to shift between these two different perspectives. The purpose of this thesis has been to develop a design concept that can improve the target audiences’ ability to orientate within the park following the proposed rebuilding. Through the use of theories, site analysis and interviews, has human behavior in search for information within spatial contexts been studied, with a particular emphasis on it’s implications for “Folkets Park”. These studies form the basis for the proposed design presented in the thesis. The proposed design intends to provide a well-defined idea and overview of what the park contains, to clarify directions when moving between different locations within the park, as well as to indicate it’s various functions. The design concept is founded on the principles of wayshowing and consists more specifically of directing form elements, which has been designed and located where they can clarify the way to the park’s playgrounds for the target audience.