Positioning the Street Name on an Egocentric Referenced Map: Map Design and Evaluation of the Performance, Satisfaction and Aesthetics of the Maps

Abstract

The present work presents a map design that focuses on positioning the street name in relation to the point feature specifically the car symbol for an in-car route guidance and navigation system. In addition, this work presents an evaluation of those maps with a group of 20 drivers, 10 men, and 10 women, to understand some elements of usability and aesthetics of the map: reading time, error and success, general satisfaction, learnability and memorability, adjectives of aesthetics, mental workload and task relevance. The results allowed us to compare the findings in this work that investigates the positioning of the street name in an egocentrically referenced dynamic map with the literature recommendation regarding the positioning of the toponymy in relation to the point feature for non-egocentrically referenced static maps, specifically to aid to turn to the right side. The findings show that the top right position is the most appropriate for both static and dynamic maps, but the other recommended positioning priorities for non-egocentrically referenced static maps cannot be extended to egocentrically referenced dynamic maps with respect to label street names where the driver is on the route. In the case of dynamic maps for navigation systems, the second priority will depend on the arrangement of the cartographic symbols but avoiding the upper left position to inform maneuver to the right.