The Impact Of Directional Signs And Crowding On Indoor Wayfinding Performance And Its Improvemen

Patients or relatives who are unfamiliar with the hospital environment,or due to certain symptoms(dizziness,anxiety,injury,etc.)that lead to temporary reduction of individual spatial cognition and judgment will fall into the difficult predicament of finding their way,and unreasonable directional signs will increase the risk of getting lost.The unclear signs make hospital staff spend more energy on giving directions to patients and their families,increasing their workload.large hospitals with quality medical resources are overcrowded and noisy no matter when visited.Walking in a crowded indoor space not only triggers negative emotions such as irritability and restlessness,as well as physiological problems such as dizziness and difficulty breathing,but also triggers spatial anxiety and reduces individual cognitive levels and performance on complex tasks.Besides,high flow of people will hinder the recognition of horizontal(ground)guidance,let us missing a part of ground information,which will prolong the wayfinding time or reduce the average wayfinding speed.Therefore,the design of a guidance signage system under highly crowded conditions is essential to enhance the efficiency and experience of patient visits.This study explores the physical(signage)and social(crowding)factors that influence indoor wayfinding based on a multi-level virtual hospital wayfinding task,and aims to investigate the best wayfinding performance and experience under high crowding conditions.The purpose of this study is to help designers of indoor environments such as hospitals to improve the usability and user experience of signages,and to enhance the efficiency and experience of patients.In study 1,the experimental method was used to investigate the differences in wayfinding time and number of pauses(participant stayed at the same place more than 2s during the wayfinding task)between three single and two combined guidance systems commonly used in hospitals without the presence of dynamic others.After the wayfinding task there was a post hoc questionnaire to judging whether the virtual reality system could restore the real hospital context to the wayfinding problem.In addition,post hoc questionnaire was used to analyze the degree of confusion caused to the user by different guidance signage systems when indicating directional information,further helping to judge the usability of the guidance signage system.Study 2 was used to explore the effects of crowding and wayfinding on wayfinding performance and experience in the presence of dynamic others were explored.Bsides,the effects of crowding on wayfinding recognition in the experimental scenario and the subjects’ experience of wayfinding in both high and low crowded environments were also evaluated using post hoc questionnaires.Finally,the effect of the presence or absence of dynamic others on wayfinding performance and experience was examined by comparing study 1 and study 2.Findings:(1)In general,the combined signages had better wayfinding performance than the single signages.Besides,the " arrows" was better than the "top " and " you are here" in the single signage.i.e.,the wayfinding time is relatively shorter,but there is no significant difference in the number of pauses and experience.(2)In the case of dynamic presence of others,the time of wayfinding is shorter with "top+ arrows" than "top+you are here" in a highly crowded environment,but there is no significant difference in the number of pauses and experience.(3)When using the same signage for wayfinding,the more dynamic the number of others,the longer the time of wayfinding,the more times of pauses,the worse experience of wayfinding,the more dizzying to the system and the more difficult to recognize the directional information provided by the signage.The study concludes that“top+ arrows ”signages should be installed in the indoor space of hospitals with high crowding level to improve the wayfinding performance and experience.