Comparing the effects of reference-based, orientation-based, and turn-by-turn navigation guidance on users' independent navigation

Research has shown that turn-by-turn navigation guidance has made users overly reliant on such guidance, impairing their independent wayfinding ability. This paper compares the impacts of two new types of navigation guidance - reference-based and orientation-based - on their users' ability to independently navigate to the same destinations, both as compared to each other, and as compared to two types of traditional turn-by-turn guidance, i.e., map-based and augmented-reality (AR) based. The results of our within-subjects experiment indicate that, while the use of reference-based guidance led to users taking more time to navigate when first receiving it, it boosted their subsequent ability to independently navigate to the same destination in less time, via more efficient routes, and with less assistance-seeking from their phones than either map-based or AR-based turn-by-turn navigation guidance did.