Improving Spatial Orientation in Immersive Environments

In this paper, we present a comparative evaluation of three different approaches to improving users' spatial awareness in virtual reality environments, and consequently their user experience and productivity. Using a scientific visualization task, we test the performance of 21 participants to navigate around a virtual immersive environment. Our results suggest that using landmarks, a 3D minimap, and waypoint navigation all contribute to improved spatial orientation, while the macroscopic view of the environment provided by the 3D minimap has the greatest positive impact on spatial orientation. Users also prefer the 3D minimap for usability and immersion by a wide margin over the other techniques.