The effects of hyperlinks on navigation in virtual environments

Author(s): Howes, A., Payne, S. J., Jones, D. M.

Journal/Book: Int J Hum Comput Studies. 2000; 53: 24-28 Oval Rd, London NW1 7DX, England. Academic Press Ltd. 551-581.

Abstract: Hyperlinks introduce discontinuities of movement to 3-D virtual environments (VEs). Nine independent attributes of hyperlinks are defined and their likely effects on navigation in VEs are discussed. Four experiments are described in which participants repeatedly navigated VEs that were either conventional (i.e. Obeyed the laws of Euclidean space), or contained hyperlinks. Participants learned spatial knowledge slowly in both types of environment, echoing the Endings of previous studies that used conventional VEs. The detrimental effects on participants' spatial knowledge of using hyperlinks for movement were reduced when a time-delay was introduced, but participants still developed less accurate knowledge than they did in the conventional VEs. Visual continuity had a greater influence on participants' rate of learning than continuity of movement, and participants were able to exploit hyperlinks that connected together disparate regions of a VE to reduce travel time.

Note: Article Ruddle RA, Univ Wales Coll Cardiff, Sch Psychol, POB 901, Cardiff CF10 3YG, S Glam, WALES

Keyword(s): navigation; virtual environments; hyperlinks; spatial cognition; COMPUTER-SIMULATED ENVIRONMENT; TRAVERSED DISTANCE; MAPS; ORIENTATION; KNOWLEDGE; SPACES; PERCEPTION; HYPERTEXT; BUILDINGS

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