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INVESTIGATION ON WAYFINDING OF FOREIGNERS IN OSAKA STATION AREA

2002; Architectural Institute of Japan; Volume: 67; Issue: 561 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3130/aija.67.173_4

1881-8161

Danni Qin, Kunio Funahashi, Takeshi Suzuki, Michihiro Kita, Bin Li,

Geographic Information Systems Studies

Foreigners who tried to find their ways at Osaka Station area were randomly selected, unobtrusively tracked until each destination, and interviewed with regard to their reference frames, reasons, and difficulties if any in path choice decisions as possible. According to several factors influencing wayfinding behavior, the features of 36 samples were classified into five types, namely ; "independent," "dependent," "usual," "barrier," and "positive" respectively. In these wayfinding features there is a aspect as the "unfamiliar schema" of different socio-cultural structures. Factors included competence of utilizing information, stay-period in Japan, language ability, experience, generic knowledge of city environment, as well as the extent of lostness. Complex patterns of passageways and less efficient guiding information for unfamiliar foreigners were pointed out as physical reasons for losing ways easily.