Abstract
With the advances in technology, virtual reality (VR)has been increasingly used in many field. Previous studies in improving navigation in virtual reality can be divided into two categories：establishing a more navigable environment and providing the navigation aids. A commonly used aid is electronic map which can be seen in global positioning system (GPS), personal digital assistant (PDA) or tour information system,…, etc. This study is focus on the effects of presentation styles of electronic map on navigation in VR. A 2Dmap and a 3Dmap were used for four searching tasks in the experiments. The total performance time, the total traveling distance and the subjective ratings were collected as indicators for navigation effects. The subjects’ previous VR experiences were also investigated to better understand the effects of the navigation aids in VR. The result showed that the electronic map styles and the previous experiences on virtual reality and affected the navigation performance. Consequently, when designing a virtual reality along with electronic maps as navigation aids, the designers have considered the target users’ characteristics as well as the tasks that users intend to do.