| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 設計研究所 === 101 === Wayfinding is a human mental cognitive process that he/she will use in his/her daily life, especially when facing a whole new environment. Along with the progress of the technology and GPS, a human can obtain various types of information around him/her. This study is aimed to find out the effects of combining sounds with different pitches for guiding directions. The experiment in this study includes two stages: (1) The pilot test: From integrating relevant research studies, the author will investigate different kinds of auditory signal combinations linking with specific meanings. An experiment was conducted to help understand potential combination of sounds that could help guide the direction. Based on user’s task performance, SUS questionnaire, and interview, the author can understand users’ mental models and cognition. (2) The validate experiment: Based on the results generated from the first stage together with summaries from relevant literature, a virtual driving simulation environment is built for the validate experiment.
The experiment was planned based on a 2 (levels of user driving experience) by 3 (auditory signals with different pitch combinations) two-way ANOVA design. There are two levels in the independent variable of user experience: (a) The user who has driving experience: The user who had experience on driving a car. (b) The user who does not have driving experience: The user who had not driven a car ever. There are three levels in the independent variable of sound combination styles: (a) “Auditory signals combined with two levels of pitch”: Two sounds with different levels of pitches to present “Turning”, same pitch to present “Forward and U-turn”. (b) “Auditory signals with same pitch”: Sounds with different length to indicate different directions. (c) “Auditory signals repeated with same sounds by two levels of pitches”: Two sounds with same pitch to present “Turning”, different levels of pitches to present “Forward and U-turn”.
The generated results indicated that: (1) “Auditory signals combined with two levels of pitches” sound style of user interface helps users know the direction correctly and faster. (2) When the user decided to turn right or turn left, the “auditory signals combined with two levels of pitches” style could help user realize the direction in advance. (3) By using different lengths of sound for distinguishing different directions, the user felt higher mental demand in “auditory signals with same pitch” style sound of user interface. (4) By applying different levels of pitches in auditory signal designs could help reduce the mental demand. (5) “The experiences of driving a car does not affect the performance of linking sound to specific direction.
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