Assessing the Usability of a Wearable Computer System For Outdoor Pedestrian Navigation

The paper outlines a pilot test on the UCSB Wearable Computer developed in conjunction with Project Battuta. The UCSB Wearable incorporates geographic context information (location and orientation) to display an electronic digital map to a user via a Heads-Up Display (HUD). Features of the custom designed Geographic Referenced Graphic Environment (GEORGE) software allow the user to switch between types of maps, and automatically center and rotate the map. The pilot study used pre and post-experiment questionnaires, performance records and interaction logs to evaluate which aspects of the system were most useful both in terms of user attitudes and objective performance on a navigation task. Zoom, pan and auto-rotate features were shown to be well used, while subjects showed indifference to map type and perspective view options. Performance on the wayfinding task generally improved over each segment of the trial, with subjects approaching normal walking speeds at the end of the trial.