Effect of visual cues on human performance in navigating through a virtual maze

Many applications of virtual environments (VE’s) require people to be able to have some kind of spatial knowledge and use visual cues to perform well in the VE. Thus, the design and presentation of cues is important for the efficient use of a VE. In this paper, we report the results of an experiment in which groups were allowed to use three different visual cues (only 2-D map cue, 2-D map with non directional cue, 2-D with an arrow cue) and were asked to apply their spatial knowledge in navigating a 3-D virtual maze. The underlying purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the cue types on the performance of subjects in the VE. It was observed that the cue type affected the performance of the participant in the 3D maze. The arrow cue was most effective in terms of time taken to reach the center of the maze as compared to the other cues.