Search Results (25)

With rapid urbanization, enhancing the quality of public spaces is critical to residents’ well-being and sustainable urban development. However, user perceptions of these spaces remain insufficiently quantified. This study introduces a perception-based evaluation framework encompassing four dimensions: service, spatial, cultural, and aesthetic. A three-dimensional importance-performance analysis (3-D IPA) model is applied to assess two multifunctional public spaces in Wuhan—the Citizens’ Home (CH) and the Creative World Industrial Park (CWIP)—with the aim of identifying user-prioritized attributes that inform sustainable design interventions. The findings reveal the following: (1) At CH, spatial perception (importance = 3.93; performance = 4.02) received the highest ratings, particularly for openness and ecological pavement, highlighting areas for green infrastructure improvement. (2) At CWIP, cultural perception (importance = 3.75; performance = 3.73) dominated, with a need to enhance the signage systems and cultural integration for greater place identity. (3) Optimization priorities included energy-efficient lighting, entrance enhancements, and recreational layout improvements at CH, and thematic diversity and wayfinding systems at CWIP. (4) The 3-D IPA framework effectively identifies user-perceived priorities and supports experience-driven, resource-conscious spatial improvements. This study provides a user-centered, data-informed approach for evaluating and optimizing urban public spaces, offering practical strategies to align spatial quality with long-term sustainability goals. Full article

As urban environments pose significant challenges to people of all ages and abilities, ensuring equal accessibility is essential for achieving social inclusion in cities. Authors claim that universal design, initially developed to assist people with disabilities, can also benefit older adults. Despite common assumptions, there is limited evidence to support this claim. This study examines whether the urban mobility needs of people with disabilities (physical, sensory, and cognitive) align with those of older adults, both with regular physiological ageing or age-related diseases. Using an integrative review methodology, this study synthesized 56 references on urban mobility measures and 121 references on the specific urban requirements and mobility profiles for both groups and subgroups. The findings reveal significant overlaps in the mobility requirements of people with disabilities and older adults, particularly regarding inclusive features such as barrier-free crossings, intermediate seating, noise reduction, and improved wayfinding. These measures benefit both groups, with universal design strategies supporting the mobility of people with disabilities while also addressing the needs of the ageing population, which is rapidly increasing. The findings offer valuable insights for urban planners, policymakers, and designers to create inclusive, accessible, and high-quality urban spaces that support people of all ages and abilities. Full article

Wayfinding refers to the process of guiding individuals through built spaces, particularly in environments where navigation may be challenging due to complex layouts. In hospital settings, efficient wayfinding is essential as it directly impacts the experiences of patients, visitors, and staff. This entry focuses on wayfinding strategies in Australian hospitals, where research on this topic is limited. The entry uses a comparative case study approach to analyse various wayfinding techniques for non-emergency services, including physical signage, digital navigation systems, and spatial design elements across six hospitals in Australia. The findings indicate that combining visual cues, digital tools, and spatial planning improves navigation efficiency. However, the hospital size and layout significantly influence the effectiveness of these systems. This entry provides insights into the current wayfinding strategies and challenges in Australian hospitals and suggests further research on global case studies using the comparative framework and definitions provided here. Full article

Human factors play a critical role in underground mine evacuations, significantly impacting performance during emergencies. Traditional mine evacuation strategies rely on predetermined routes and static signs, but these methods do not account for the dynamic and unpredictable nature of real emergencies or the diverse behaviors of individuals. This research addresses these limitations by using agent-based simulations to explore evacuation behavior and performance in underground mines. The study involved three key steps. First, agent-based simulations were deployed to model both individual and group behaviors during emergencies. Second, evacuation performance was compared across three scenarios: miners following traditional passive signage, those making decisions in chaotic conditions, and miners equipped with smart evacuation devices. Finally, evacuation times were quantified to assess the effectiveness of each approach. The results revealed that miners using smart devices improved evacuation efficiency by 35% compared with those relying on passive signage and by 37% compared with chaotic decision-making scenarios. The median evacuation time was reduced from 10.8 min with passive signage to 7 min when using smart devices, taking varying stamina levels into account. These findings underscore the importance of integrating intelligent systems that account for pre-evacuation and wayfinding behaviors, offering new insights and setting a higher standard for emergency protocols in underground mining. Full article

Background: In recent decades, the size and passenger capacity of cruise/passenger ships has been associated with noticeable growth; in turn, this has created significant concerns regarding the adequacy of existing evacuation protocols during an “abandon the ship” situation (life threatening emergency). This study provides a systematic overview of related weaknesses and challenges, identifying critical factors that influence evacuation efficiency, and also proposes innovative/interdisciplinary solutions to address those challenges. It further emphasizes the growing complexity of cruise/passenger ship evacuations due to increased vessel size/heavy density of human population, as well as identifying the necessity of addressing both technical and human-centered elements to enhance safety and efficiency of those specific operations. Methods: Guided by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) approach, a comprehensive systematic literature search was conducted across academic databases, including Scopus, Science Direct, Google Scholar, and a limited number of academic journals that are heavily maritime-focused in their mission. Emphasis was placed on peer-reviewed articles and certain gray studies exploring the impacts of ship design, human behavior, group dynamics, and environmental conditions on evacuation outcomes. This review prioritized research incorporating advanced simulation models, crowd management solutions (applied in various disciplines, such as stadiums, airports, malls, and ships), real-world case studies, and established practices aligned with contemporary maritime safety standards. Results: The key findings identify several critical factors influencing the overall evacuation efficiency, including ship heeling angles, staircase configurations, and passenger (physical) characteristics (with their mobility capabilities and related demographics clearly standing out, among others). This effort underscores the pivotal role of group dynamics, including the influence of group size, familiarity among the group, and leader-following behaviors, in shaping evacuation outcomes. Advanced technological solutions, such as dynamic wayfinding systems, real-time monitoring, and behavior-based simulation models, emerged as essential tools for optimizing an evacuation process. Innovative strategies to mitigate identified challenges, such as phased evacuations, optimized muster station placements, and tailor made/strategic passenger cabin allocations to reduce congestion during an evacuation and enhance the overall evacuation flow, are also highlighted. Conclusions: Protecting people facing a life-threatening situation requires timely preparations. The need for a holistic evacuation strategy that effectively integrates specific ship design considerations and human factors management, along with inputs related to advanced information technology-related solutions, is the best way forward. At the same time, the importance of real-time adaptive management systems and interdisciplinary approaches to address the challenges of modern cruise/passenger ship evacuations clearly stands out. These findings provide a robust foundation for future research and practical applications, contributing to advancements in maritime safety and the development of efficient evacuation protocols for large-in-size cruise/passenger vessels. Full article

As urban environments become increasingly complex and the costs and challenges of infrastructure upgrades continue to rise, wayfinding signage has become an effective solution to cope with urban dynamics due to its low cost and high flexibility. Although the functionality of wayfinding signage has been extensively studied, the perceptual differences between designers and non-designers have not been adequately explored. Ignoring these differences may lead to the overlooking of users’ real and diverse needs, resulting in suboptimal signage performance in practical applications and ultimately a reduction in the overall functionality and user experience of urban spaces. This study aims to bridge this perceptual gap. For this study, we conducted a questionnaire survey in China to compare the visual preferences of designers and non-designers regarding text, shape, color coding, and patterns. The results indicate that designers prioritize functionality and clarity to ensure the effective use of signage in complex urban environments, whereas non-designers prefer wayfinding signages that reflect local cultural symbols and characteristics. Our conclusions suggest that the public’s expectations for wayfinding signage extend beyond basic navigational functions, with an emphasis on cultural expression and visual appeal. Understanding these perceptual differences is crucial in developing design strategies that balance functionality, esthetics, and sustainability, thereby facilitating the sustainable integration of signage into urban landscapes. Full article

The built environment continues to become increasingly accessible to people with disabilities, yet there remains a lack of focus on how these individuals are evacuated in emergencies. The objective of this scoping review was to survey the academic literature to identify solutions for safely evacuating individuals with functional limitations from the indoor built environment (i.e., buildings). Journal articles and conference proceedings published in the year 2002 onwards were included. Two pairs of reviewers independently evaluated 3562 articles from ten databases and identified 99 articles. The results were categorized into six main evacuation solution types: notification, wayfinding, egress, building design, strategy, and training programs. Our findings highlight the importance of tailoring solutions to the needs of individuals with different functional limitations. Future work should focus on expanding the number of solutions available for (1) emergencies beyond fires (e.g., natural disasters); (2) unique building types that may require specialized engineering considerations; and (3) a greater variety of impairments (e.g., seeing, hearing, cognitive). We also emphasize the need for more interdisciplinary work and the importance of including rescuers and rescuees in emergency preparedness discussions. These collaborations will ensure that building designs, organizational procedures, and evacuation aids complement each other to maximize safety. To our knowledge, this is the first scoping review to identify solutions for evacuating individuals with functional limitations from buildings. These findings may help inform future recommendations for new evacuation guidelines around the world. Full article

Wayfinding signage is an intermediary public facility that coordinates the relationship between space and people, and it is crucial to help people find their way in complex indoor environments. In people’s cognitive behaviour towards wayfinding signs, the visual salience of the signs is the prerequisite and key to ensuring their effective operation. This paper aims to review published research articles on the effect of indoor environments on the saliency of wayfinding signs. The literature review was conducted by PICO methodology to formulate the research question and develop search strategies. Relevant research articles were identified by systematically searching electronic databases, including Web of Science, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, and EBSCO. This paper summarises two categories of factors influencing signage salience: (1) floor plan factors and (2) environmental factors. This study examined and condensed the attributes of wayfinding signage and their impact on how pedestrians perceive visuals while navigating. Exploring the elements that influence the visual prominence of indoor signs enhances our comprehension of how pedestrians engage with visually guided information indoors. Furthermore, this offers a theoretical foundation for the realm of indoor wayfinding. Full article

Strategies and guidelines for best practice environmental design typically have a singular focus and intended outcome, for example, green infrastructure management for urban cooling in a hotter climate. However, when applied to specific situations such as aged care, matters such as accessibility, wayfinding, and safety are also critical. Combining various audit tools offer multiple benefits to meet a variety of needs for thermal comfort, health, and well-being, as well as cost-effectiveness. In the absence of such a tool, using a place-based analysis, we developed a novel audit tool for external settings of residential aged care facilities (ACFs) incorporating urban cooling, Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED), and universal design criteria. To determine how ACFs perform in the face of increased levels of urban heat required evaluation of additional urban cooling measures. The Audit Tool was developed and tested in collaboration with ACFs across sub-tropical and tropical areas of Australia, varying in climate, scale, and urban density. Quality of life for residents, visitors, and staff of ACFs can be supported by the provision of green infrastructure to improve the thermal comfort of outdoor settings and, if located appropriately, reduce the need for an increase in internal air-conditioning. The aim of this article is to propose a user-friendly Hybrid Environmental Design Audit Tool (HEDAT) to support facility managers, planners, and design consultants to inform the prioritization and targeting of interventions and monitoring of implementation and outcomes. Full article

Background: Based on studies of children with motor disabilities on topographic working memory (TWM), no influence of age was reported. The only differences were in the degree of mobility and exploration of the environment. The more active a child was in exploring the environment, the less his/her TWM was poor. However, in typically developing children (TD), exploration of the environment increases with increasing age, and age-related effects have been described. Here, we aim at investigating TWM considering age in TD with the additional question of whether WM in the reaching space differed from that in the navigational space requiring body movements. We hypothesized that WM in both spaces would improve correspondingly with increasing age, assuming that the greater the autonomy in exploring the environment, the better TWM becomes. Method: 120 children (5–16 years old) performed the Corsi Block-Tapping test (CBT) and the Walking Corsi test (WalCT). Results: Statistical analyses evidenced significantly increasing WalCT and CBT spans between each school stage, except in the CBT span between middle stage (MS) and upper stage (US). CBT spans were significantly higher than in the WalCT in the pre-school, lower stage, and MS, with the CBT span increasing until MS, which is sufficient for using spatial orientation strategies effectively. Conclusions: When navigation is gradually controlled, a child may be able to pay increasingly more attention to wayfinding and behavior in traffic. Since the US group even presented as good in the WalCT as young adults living in metropolitan environments, assuming that children may gain spatial orientation from having opportunities to move in their surroundings, this is also relevant for children with motor disabilities. Full article

The COVID-19 spread abruptly changed the fruition of indoor environments, where necessary adaptive measures have since been implemented. Buildings open to the public were suddenly equipped with physical devices aiming to encourage users’ appropriate behaviors, such as hand sanitizing, social distancing, and temperature monitoring. Through a twofold architectural-psychological perspective, the paper presents a research aiming to understand how users perceive these devices in the Italian context and to identify the design features that could improve their effectiveness in enhancing individuals’ awareness. With an interdisciplinary approach, four methods were adopted: observational field surveys, background and normative framework analysis, survey research through an online questionnaire, and case studies survey research. The results confirm the overall effectiveness of the implemented anti-COVID strategies, their suitability in encouraging individuals’ appropriate behaviors, and the importance of regulating the users’ flow indoors. The research allowed defining the devices (hand-sanitizing devices and temperature-measurement instruments) and wayfinding systems more suited to be included in the prevention strategy and identified their more appropriate design features in relation to the users’ feedback. Operational suggestions are presented as well. The adopted experimental approach can be useful in supporting decision making in managing of the built environment in both the current and future contexts. Full article

In this study, interface designs of a VR 3D-simulated Rubik’s Cube game were developed and evaluated. A 2 × 2 × 2 mixed-design ANOVA was executed, with age (younger adult/older adult), interface (arrow/intuitive), and task complexity (easy, a single symmetrical task/difficult, a bio-symmetrical task) experimental design. The first three factors were between-subject designs while the latter was a within-subject design. The dependent variable was the percentage of the task performance and wayfinding questionnaire. The collected experimental data were analyzed by regression method to clarify the correlation among age, interface, task complexity, and wayfinding strategy. There were 96 subjects in the experiment, including 48 younger adults (aged from 18~22) and 48 older adults (aged from 60~85). The experimental results and statistical analysis showed that the task difficulty had a significant effect on task performance in the 3D VR Rubik’s Cube game. For the smart pad, the arrow interface was significantly more effective than the intuitive interface. The theoretical model regression analysis of the task complexity, interface, and wayfinding strategy was shown to be significant. Results showed that users may be affected either positively or negatively by the wayfinding strategy, as a higher score on familiarity indicates better VR game task performance, whereas for the usual spatial behavior wayfinding strategy, the opposite result was found for memory. These results can be used to assess VR game interface designs, taking into consideration age difference, task complexity, experiential self-report on 3D VR games, and including VR rotation navigational Full article

This paper introduces the design of a novel indoor and outdoor mobility assistance system for visually impaired people. This system is named the MAPS (Mobility Assistance Path Planning and orientation in Space), and it is based on the theoretical frameworks of mobility and spatial cognition. Its originality comes from the assistance of two main functions of navigation: locomotion and wayfinding. Locomotion involves the ability to avoid obstacles, while wayfinding involves the orientation in space and ad hoc path planning in an (unknown) environment. The MAPS architecture proposes a new low-cost system for indoor–outdoor cognitive mobility assistance, relying on two cooperating hardware feedbacks: the Force Feedback Tablet (F2T) and the TactiBelt. F2T is an electromechanical tablet using haptic effects that allow the exploration of images and maps. It is used to assist with maps’ learning, space awareness emergence, path planning, wayfinding and effective journey completion. It helps a VIP construct a mental map of their environment. TactiBelt is a vibrotactile belt providing active support for the path integration strategy while navigating; it assists the VIP localize the nearest obstacles in real-time and provides the ego-directions to reach the destination. Technology used for acquiring the information about the surrounding space is based on vision (cameras) and is defined with the localization on a map. The preliminary evaluations of the MAPS focused on the interaction with the environment and on feedback from the users (blindfolded participants) to confirm its effectiveness in a simulated environment (a labyrinth). Those lead-users easily interpreted the system’s provided data that they considered relevant for effective independent navigation. Full article

Age-related spatial navigation decline is more pronounced in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) dementia. We used a realistic-looking virtual navigation test suite to analyze different aspects of visuospatial processing in typical and atypical aging. A total of 219 older adults were recruited from the Czech Brain Aging Study cohort. Cognitively normal older adults (CN; n = 78), patients with amnestic MCI (n = 75), and those with mild AD dementia (n = 66) underwent three navigational tasks, cognitive assessment, and brain MRI. Route learning and wayfinding/perspective-taking tasks distinguished the groups as performance and learning declined and specific visuospatial strategies were less utilized with increasing cognitive impairment. Increased perspective shift and utilization of non-specific strategies were associated with worse task performance across the groups. Primacy and recency effects were observed across the groups in the route learning and the wayfinding/perspective-taking task, respectively. In addition, a primacy effect was present in the wayfinding/perspective-taking task in the CN older adults. More effective spatial navigation was associated with better memory and executive functions. The results demonstrate that a realistic and ecologically valid spatial navigation test suite can reveal different aspects of visuospatial processing in typical and atypical aging. Full article

Augmented reality (AR) is widely used to guide users when performing complex tasks, for example, in education or industry. Sometimes, these tasks are a succession of subtasks, possibly distant from each other. This can happen, for instance, in inspection operations, where AR devices can give instructions about subtasks to perform in several rooms. In this case, AR guidance is both needed to indicate where to head to perform the subtasks and to instruct the user about how to perform these subtasks. In this paper, we propose an approach based on user activity detection. An AR device displays the guidance for wayfinding when current user activity suggests it is needed. We designed the first prototype on a head-mounted display using a neural network for user activity detection and compared it with two other guidance temporality strategies, in terms of efficiency and user preferences. Our results show that the most efficient guidance temporality depends on user familiarity with the AR display. While our proposed guidance has not proven to be more efficient than the other two, our experiment hints toward several improvements of our prototype, which is a first step in the direction of efficient guidance for both wayfinding and complex task completion. Full article