The current study has a number of limitations. First, we conducted the study with only 16 participants, all of whom had relatively similar backgrounds. Although our goal was to obtain insights into in-situ use of map technologies using qualitative research with a small sample size, our findings may not be generalized to a larger mobile phone user population.
Second, we investigated participants’ choices of maps in a relatively constrained study setting. Although the participants had quite diverse travel trajectories and had a variety of travel-related tasks and environmental information needs that were consistent with previous studies conducted, we could not claim that this study perfectly reflected the real-world situation. It should be noted that we posed several constraints on participants instead of observing them behaving completely naturally. Although we tried to make the study setting as realistic as real travel, these constraints nevertheless would not be present in many travel contexts. In addition, all participants were traveling in downtown Hsinchu instead of to well-known or popular tourist destinations. We expect the results to be more applicable to traveling in an urban area instead of in a tourist domain. We also did not discuss how age and gender related to the choice of map in this study. While one reason is that there were few senior participants in our study, another reason is that, qualitatively, we did not observe noticeable differences between the junior and senior participants. If there had been more diverse ages of participants, we might have been able to observe more nuances in their behaviors and preferences. On the other hand, prior research has conflicting results regarding the influence of gender on spatial abilities (Gilmartin & Patton, 1984; Kitchin, 1996; Montello, 1998). In our data, we also did not observe noticeable differences between genders. Finally, participants could have varied preferences and experiences of using maps and wayfinding strategies. Our qualitative study with a small set of participants unfortunately could not draw any conclusions about the connection between them. A more controlled experimental method would be needed to observe if a statistically significant difference
existed between these characteristics in the study context. However, it is beyond the scope of this paper.
Conclusion
In the study, we conducted an in-situ field observation and interviews with 16 smartphone users to understand how they used mobile maps and tourist maps interchangeably while traveling in an urban area. We investigated when and why they chose a specific map at a specific moment rather than the other. We uncovered when and why mobile users would prefer a tourist map or a mobile app over the other in four common travel-related tasks.
Also, we identified three types of non-wayfinding factors—environmental, situational, and personal—that affect users’ choice of a paper and a mobile map. Finally, we provide some design implications for future mobile maps.
Despite the limitations mentioned, we believe the results of this study are not without value. This is the first study that aims to study the choice of two commonly used maps, tourist maps and mobile maps, with the motivation of shedding light on how to improve future mobile maps through investigating the reasons underlying the choices.
Although nowadays an increasing number of people are using electronic maps, many governments still publish and distribute tourist maps for the cities they want to promote.
As shown in our study, in a number of situations users also prefer these tourist maps.
Consequently, we not only treat this research more as a starting point for future research on this topic, we also provide several design suggestions worth pursuing for building a better mobile map tool in the future.
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