Exploration of Visual and Haptic Sensorial Feedbacks for Pedestrian Navigation

In order to lower our carbon footprint, there has been a push towards more pedestrian-friendly methods of transportation. Navigation wearables have grown with this trend, creating more interactive and enriching experiences for the user. However, most wearable designs do not stem from the properties of sensorial feedback. In this research, we collected both qualitative and quantitative data in multiple user studies. We explored the characteristics of visual and haptic feedback. Allowing the user’s experience to inspire new forms of navigation, with an emphasis on co-creation. It was found that the haptic feedback provides a more intuitive navigational experience while struggling to convey more complex instructions required by traditional turn-by-turn navigation. While visual stimuli performed well irrespective of the complexity of the instruction due to people being familiar with responding to visual cues.