App-free zone: Paper maps as alternative to electronic indoor navigation aids and their empirical evaluation with large user bases

Nowadays, mobile devices are widely used as navigation aids, e.g., for car navigation. Their greatest advantage is the ability of automatic position tracking. In indoor environments, this feature is often not available, since indoor localization techniques are not ready for the mass-market yet. What remains is a small display with limited space for route visualizations. In contrast, the variable size of paper allows for the representation of additional context information as a means for spatial understanding and orientation in space, rendering it a valuable alternative presentation medium for indoor navigation aids. Independent of the medium used, provided visualizations must meet specific cartographic requirements like clarity, comprehensibility, and expedience. Within a co-operation between geoinformation science and sociology, we develop and investigate cartographic methods for effective route guidance in indoor environments. Our evaluation base comes from user studies conducted with more than 3,000 visitors, of both genders and aged between 4 and 78 years. These user studies were collected during the “Long Nights of Science” in Berlin in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. We used paper as the presentation medium for our experiments, not only for practical reasons but also because we want to confront our participants with a solution which does not align to the current trend. Within this article we put special focus on media characteristics and users’ media preferences. Therefore, we asked our participants about their opinion on the provided paper maps in contrast to mobile solutions. Based on their answers, we could derive media characteristics relevant from a user’s perspective, as well as the affinities of different user groups. One astonishing outcome was that 11–15 year-old teenagers indicate a much higher tendency towards paper maps than towards smartphone apps.