User preferences, information transactions and location-based services: A study of urban pedestrian wayfinding

Though research into location-based services (LBS) is being carried out across a number of disciplines, user aspects of LBS remains a cross-cutting theme. In this paper, the research focuses on investigating the user information requirements from LBS at individual level, with emphasis on the interactive nature of information transactions between environments, individuals and mobile devices. Based on a proposed conceptual model, urban pedestrian wayfinding experiments have been implemented in an immersive virtual reality test environment. Automated and semi-automated methods of data collection have allowed an integrated picture of participant behaviour and information preferences to be constructed and analysed. The results of this study show that there are clear user preferences in information requirements in completing wayfinding tasks. However, changes in user preferences during the wayfinding tasks do occur in response to levels of confidence, different spatial layouts and the wayfinding situations individuals encounter. The outcomes indicate that the proposed conceptual interaction model and adopted implementation approach assist in understanding user behaviour and information preferences for LBS. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.