Signage Versus Environmental Affordances: Is the Explicit Information Strong Enough to Guide Human Behavior During a Wayfinding Task?

Abstract

This study aims to explore how people behave when they have to find a location within a complex building and are confronted with situations where directional signage (i.e., explicit information) is in opposition to environmental affordances that naturally direct users towards a specific path, creating a situation with conflicting information (e.g., a brighter corridor vs. a darker corridor but with a directional sign indicating to follow the darker one). A virtual reality–based methodology was used and a between‐subject design was considered. Thus, participants were given the tasks of finding three publicly accessible central points in a virtual hotel and confronted with a two forced‐choice task of local scenes in which environmental variables (i.e., corridor width and brightness) and signage varied systematically, in two experimental conditions (i.e., neutral and signage). For the signage condition, signs were inserted to explicitly point in the opposite direction than that implicitly suggested by the environmental affordances, creating situations with conflicting information. Results indicate that environmental variables were able to direct people indoors acting as environmental affordances. Users preferred to follow the wider and brighter paths. However, when directional signage pointed in the opposite direction of the paths preferred by the participants, most of them complied with signage.

Wayfinding in Interior Environments: An Integrative Review

“…Different attributes of corridors and choice pattern of people at intersections were examined in two studies and findings showed that in the absents of signs, people are more likely to choose wider and brighter corridors at T-type intersection (nodes with two alternatives of turning left or right), but not necessarily at F-type intersections (nodes with two alternatives of continuing straight or turning right/left) during non-emergency situations. However, people relied on signs when they were available ( Vilar et al, 2014b , 2015 ).…”

“…In a series of experiments, Van Tilburg and Igou (2014) examined which of four heuristics—the action-continuation heuristic, the initial segment heuristic, the least-angle heuristic, and the hill-climbing heuristic—individuals preferred while navigating a maze with equally functional routes at a choice point and found that participants behaved in a way consistent with use of the action-continuation heuristic. In three other studies, navigation patterns of people were investigated in two types of intersections: T-type intersections (nodes with two alternatives of turning left or right) and F-type intersections (nodes with two alternatives of continuing straight or turning right/left) ( Vilar et al, 2012 , 2014b , 2015 ). Findings showed that the type of intersection affected people’s behavior, such that brighter corridors were preferred at both T-type and F-type intersections and wider corridors at only T-type intersections.…”

“…Floor plan configuration -navigation pattern 6 Peponis et al, 1990;Haq, 2003;Haq and Zimring, 2003;Hölscher et al, 2006Hölscher et al, , 2012Lu and Ye, 2019 The relationship between regions-and spatial memories Regions-spatial memories 2 Wang and Brockmole, 2003;Montello and Pick, 1993 The relationship between regions-and spatial updating Regions-spatial updating 1 Mou and Wang, 2015 The relationship between edges -and spatial memories. Edges -spatial memories 1 Buckley et al, 2016 The relationship between paths -and navigation pattern Paths -navigation pattern 6 Butler et al, 1993;Frankenstein et al, 2012;Hidayetoglu et al, 2012;Wiener et al, 2012;Vilar et al, 2014bVilar et al, , 2015 The relationship between paths -and psychological state Paths -psychological state 2 Vilar et al, 2013Vilar et al, , 2014b The relationship between nodes -and navigation pattern Nodes -navigation pattern 4 Vilar et al, 2012Vilar et al, , 2014bVilar et al, , 2015Van Tilburg and Igou, 2014 The relationship between nodes -and psychological state Nodes -psychological state 3 Tang et al, 2009;Vilar et al, 2013Vilar et al, , 2014b The relationship between landmarks -and spatial memories Landmarks -spatial memories 6 Jansen-Osmann and Wiedenbauer, 2004;Jansen-Osmann and Fuchs, 2006;Davis et al, 2008;Hidayetoglu et al, 2012;Werkhoven et al, 2014;Sameer and Bhushan, 2015 The relationship between landmarks -and spatial updating Landmarks -spatial updating 1 Wan et al, 2012 The relationship between landmarks -and logical associations.…”

“…Landmarks -sex 4 Schmitz, 1997Schmitz, , 1999Choi et al, 2006;Kober and Neuper, 2011 The relationship between sign -and information pick-up Sign -information pick-up 2 Rousek and Hallbeck, 2011;Hashim et al, 2014 The relationship between sign -and behavioral performance Sign -behavioral performance 6 O'Neill, 1991b; Butler et al, 1993;Wright et al, 1993;Cope et al, 1999;Chen et al, 2009;Vilar et al, 2014a The relationship between sign -and navigation pattern. Sign -navigation pattern 2 Vilar et al, 2014bVilar et al, , 2015 The relationship between sign -and psychological state Sign -psychological state 3 Tang et al, 2009;Vilar et al, 2014bVilar et al, , 2015 The relationship between sign -and culture Sign -culture 2 Hashim et al, 2014;Joy Lo et al, 2016 The relationship between maps -and spatial memories Maps -spatial memories 3 Thorndyke and Hayes-Roth, 1982;Golledge et al, 1995;Richardson et al, 1999 The relationship between maps -and information pick-up Maps -information pick-up 2 Meilinger et al, 2006;Hölscher et al, 2009 The relationship between maps -and behavioral performance.…”

“…While much of the variance in individuals’ wayfinding performance can be accounted for by factors intrinsic to people (e.g., their spatial abilities) (e.g., Kirasic, 2000 ), a growing body of literature shows that environmental factors—such as the complexity of a building’s layout (e.g., Slone et al, 2015 ), landmarks (e.g., Davis et al, 2008 ), and the attributes of corridors (e.g., Vilar et al, 2014b , 2015 ) also play critical roles in the wayfinding process. While a substantial body of literature exists pertaining to distinct and separate phenomena associated with wayfinding, no study has collated the available empirical evidence into a single source of knowledge, which prompted the current literature review.…”