Helping older pedestrians navigate unknown environments through vibrotactile guidance instructions

•The present experimental study was aimed at assessing the effectiveness and acceptability of using vibrotactile instructions to help older pedestrians finding their way in an unknown city as compared with visual instructions provided by a paper map.•The study used a simulated navigation task in which participants had to walk from point A to point B.•Compared to the paper map, the vibrotactile wristband delivering directional messages resulted in more correct orientations (left/right) at simple intersections and reduced the route-completion time.