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

Navigation in Virtual Environments (VEs) requires users to develop spatial knowledge of the environment primarily through visual cues provided to the user. Thus, the design and display of visual navigation cues is important for efficient navigation in a VE. In this paper, we report the results of an experiment in which three different visual cues were tested for their benefit toward users' navigation in a 3D virtual maze. The experiment varied the form of visual cue: a 2D map, a 2D map with a directionally ambiguous cue, and a 2D map with a directional cue. Eye tracking data was collected and analyzed to examine the correlation between the type of visual cue presented and the navigational efficiency of the user through the virtual maze. It was observed that the cue type affected performance of the participant in the 3D maze. The directional cue was most effective in the time taken by users to reach the center of the maze. Results of this study have implications for VE design as well as for game development.