Navigation with an adaptive mobile map-application: user experiences of gesture- and context-sensitiveness

In this paper, we identify navigation sub-tasks in a mobile map-application, and apply adaptive and gesture-based control methods having improved user experience as our goal. We investigate how automated positioning and rotating of maps and intuitive gesture control for zooming and scrolling facilitates navigation. Several smart features were implemented into a handheld prototype: Map is positioned and rotated according to current location and orientation. Zooming is performed with hand gestures in front of a proximity sensor. Scrolling is operated with tilting movements that are recognized with accelerometers. Graphical icons and effects visualize interesting objects, their directions and distances. We evaluate the prototype by analyzing the effort needed for performing navigation sub-tasks with and without smart control features. Moreover, a user experience study was conducted. The results show that navigation tasks can be facilitated with context-sensitiveness and gesture control, though users may need some practice.