The use of mobile navigation aids, such as in-car devices and smart phone applications are fast becoming truly ubiquitous, and come with considerable benefits to the user. However, with this increase in ubiquity, consideration also needs to be given to the effects of their use, both during navigation itself, and longer-term. While the support of a mobile device allows the user to navigate to and within unfamiliar environments, research has also shown that their use can affect engagement with the task and environment during navigation. Users can become device-focussed and passive during the task, causing them to develop a reduced understanding of their environment and poorer subsequent memory for it. Maintaining engagement with task and environment during navigation is central in the development of appropriate user-device relationships. While previous work has investigated ways to encourage engagement during navigation, generally they have failed to account for differences in the way individuals approach the navigation task, despite the extent to which they may mediate differences in the relationship between device use and task and environment engagement. This research therefore investigates how users differ when navigating with mobile devices, and the impact these differences have on environmental and task engagement. To answer this question, the research perspective places navigation as an embodied, situated activity; to understand the user, consideration must also be given to their interaction with both device and environment. This thesis adopted a mixed methodological approach, combining interviews, real-world studies and a questionnaire to gain a rich, multifaceted understanding of how individuals navigate with their mobile devices. An initial set of exploratory interviews, conducted with 18 participants, identified a number of key user and device factors which were central in shaping task and environmental engagement outcomes. These factors were taken forward for investigation in a real -world pedestrian navigation experiment with 24 users of mobile navigation technology, which aimed to determine the influences of navigation support, and user self-efficacy and trust on levels of environmental engagement and learning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:659193 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Webber, Emily |
| Publisher | University of Nottingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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