IMPROVING THE USABILITY OF

PEDESTRIAN NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

Ioannis Delikostidis Examining committee: Prof.dr. M. Molenaar University of Twente Prof.dr. Y. Georgiadou University of Twente Prof.dr. G. Gartner University of Vienna Prof.dr.ir. P.J.M. van Oosterom Delft University of Technology Prof.dr. M. de Jong University of Twente

ITC dissertation number 181 ITC, P.O. Box 6, 7500 AA Enschede, the Netherlands

ISBN 978-90-6164-303-6 Cover designed by Ioannis Delikostidis Printed by ITC Printing Department Copyright © 2011 by Ioannis Delikostidis

IMPROVING THE USABILITY OF PEDESTRIAN NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

DISSERTATION

to obtain the degree of doctor at the University of Twente, on the authority of the Rector Magnificus, prof. dr. H. Brinksma, on account of the decision of the graduation committee, to be publicly defended

on March 16th, 2011 at 12:45 hrs

by

Ioannis Delikostidis Born in Athens, Greece

On October 19th, 1974 This thesis is approved by Prof. Dr. M.J. Kraak, promotor Dr. C.P.J.M van Elzakker, assistant promotor

Acknowledgements

Completing my PhD research in 3.5 years has been a challenge but also a beautiful journey full of unique experiences. Carrying it out would not have been possible without the help and support of many wonderful people from around the world to whom I would like to express my gratitude. Foremost, I would like to deeply thank my beloved parents Eleni and Giorgos, my sister Sofia and my aunt Sonia for their endless support, love, care and understanding throughout my studies, as well as my uncle Vasilios Kalpakidis for being a true motivator for my postgraduate education. My deepest gratitude goes to Diana Kusumastuti, who, as a true soul-mate, was always there to share my worries and my happiness, to advise and encourage me, and fill me up with love, appreciation and inspiration which made many impossible things possible. I consider myself very fortunate having been supervised by Dr. Corné van Elzakker, who provided me with continuous, methodical assistance on every scientific, material and personal matter, being not only an excellent supervisor, but also a concerned friend. His invaluable detailed feedback on my work, carefully advising me but at the same time encouraging the development of my own ideas, made it possible for me to formulate, develop and complete this research. I am very grateful to my Promotor and supervisor Prof. Dr. Menno-Jan Kraak, who first of all gave me the opportunity to do this PhD in ITC, and then has been closely observing my progress, continuously providing me with very efficient scientific guidance. His constructive comments and very smart suggestions have always been a spark for considering new ways to improve my work and further rationalize my choices. I am truly grateful to Bas Retsios, who, besides being a great friend, generously shared with me his remarkable software programming knowledge, experience and skills, extensively working with me on the prototype development, which led to very satisfying results. Many thanks go to Juri Engel and Glander Tassilo from the University of Potsdam, who generated the landmark visibility layers for the area of Amsterdam, a fundamental part of my prototype implementation. This would not have been possible without the kind help of the Municipality of Amsterdam as well, to which I am grateful for providing me with high-resolution 2.5D shape-files of the city. I would like to thank Dr. Muki Haklay from University

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College London, who provided me with a very expensive mobile eye-tracking system, evaluated as a possible part of the field-based usability testing methodology of this research. I am also thankful to the UWSM2 project members for our very productive cooperation and the large exchange of knowledge and new ideas. Many thanks to the Research Group Cartography at the Vienna University of Technology for offering me the possibility to travel and present my work there, receiving very valuable feedback, generous assist