The Impact of Navigation Aids on Search Performance and Object Recall in Wide-Area Augmented Reality

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Kumaran, Radha, Kim, You-Jin, Milner, Anne E, Bullock, Tom, Giesbrecht, Barry, Höllerer, Tobias
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Kumaran, Radha
Kim, You-Jin
Milner, Anne E
Bullock, Tom
Giesbrecht, Barry
Höllerer, Tobias
author_facet Kumaran, Radha
Kim, You-Jin
Milner, Anne E
Bullock, Tom
Giesbrecht, Barry
Höllerer, Tobias
contents Head-worn augmented reality (AR) is a hotly pursued and increasingly feasible contender paradigm for replacing or complementing smartphones and watches for continual information consumption. Here, we compare three different AR navigation aids (on-screen compass, on-screen radar and in-world vertical arrows) in a wide-area outdoor user study (n=24) where participants search for hidden virtual target items amongst physical and virtual objects. We analyzed participants' search task performance, movements, eye-gaze, survey responses and object recall. There were two key findings. First, all navigational aids enhanced search performance relative to a control condition, with some benefit and strongest user preference for in-world arrows. Second, users recalled fewer physical objects than virtual objects in the environment, suggesting reduced awareness of the physical environment. Together, these findings suggest that while navigational aids presented in AR can enhance search task performance, users may pay less attention to the physical environment, which could have undesirable side-effects.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_25957
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Impact of Navigation Aids on Search Performance and Object Recall in Wide-Area Augmented Reality
Kumaran, Radha
Kim, You-Jin
Milner, Anne E
Bullock, Tom
Giesbrecht, Barry
Höllerer, Tobias
Human-Computer Interaction
H.5.1; I.3.7; H.5.2
Head-worn augmented reality (AR) is a hotly pursued and increasingly feasible contender paradigm for replacing or complementing smartphones and watches for continual information consumption. Here, we compare three different AR navigation aids (on-screen compass, on-screen radar and in-world vertical arrows) in a wide-area outdoor user study (n=24) where participants search for hidden virtual target items amongst physical and virtual objects. We analyzed participants' search task performance, movements, eye-gaze, survey responses and object recall. There were two key findings. First, all navigational aids enhanced search performance relative to a control condition, with some benefit and strongest user preference for in-world arrows. Second, users recalled fewer physical objects than virtual objects in the environment, suggesting reduced awareness of the physical environment. Together, these findings suggest that while navigational aids presented in AR can enhance search task performance, users may pay less attention to the physical environment, which could have undesirable side-effects.
title The Impact of Navigation Aids on Search Performance and Object Recall in Wide-Area Augmented Reality
topic Human-Computer Interaction
H.5.1; I.3.7; H.5.2
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.25957