How to Tell People Where to Go: Comparing Navigational Aids

Abstract To compare the effectiveness of navigational aids, drivers attempted to follow routes in unfamiliar environments using either customized route maps, vocal directions, or both. The customized route maps, which included only information relevant to the particular route, were drawn to scale, used colour, included interturn mileages, and showed landmarks. The route to be driven was traced in red. To obtain vocal directions, drivers operated a tape recorder that permitted them to play the next or the previous instruction. Instructions were generated by a set of rules with roughly one set of instructions per turn. Information that was not on the map was not included in the vocal instructions. Drivers who listened to directions drove to destinations in fewer miles, took less time, and showed about 70% fewer errors than the map drivers. The performance of drivers with route maps and voice directions was between that of the map only and voice only drivers.