Mental Breadcrumbs: Developing biometric methods to understand how emotions and sensory cues affect wayfinding
Isa He*, Humbi Song*, Zach Seibold, Ibrahim Ibrahim, and PI Allen Sayegh (* first co-authors)
Conference: SIGraDi 2022 | Critical Appropriations. November 7th-11th, 2022
XXVI International Conference of the Ibero-American Society of Digital Graphics (SIGraDi)
Keywords: Interdisciplinary Design, Biometric, Wayfinding, Sensory Cues, Mental Load
Research Questions: How do one’s emotions, mental state, and the spatial environment interact? Why are some built environments easier to navigate than others? What spatial cues do people use in wayfinding, and how is it impacted by one’s cognitive load?
Figure 1. GPS maps of the participants’ urban walks (explore + retrace), annotated by the participants with self-reported moments of elevated emotions. Bottom drawings show cognitive maps drawn by the participants.
Figure 2. Dashboard for concurrent analysis of 1) route data, 2) self-reported data, and 3) biometric data, which are mapped onto an unrolled walking path identified as discrete segments.
