The ability to orient oneself and read maps is essential to successfully navigate in unfamiliar environments. It is well known that the ability to orient oneself with maps varies from person to person. While there are numerous navigation systems to help us find our way, very few efforts have been made to use GI technologies to promote orientation and map reading skills and overcome the individual differences.
GeoGami is a location-based game using digital maps to systematically teach navigational map reading competence. The thesis will investigate how to design trainings to promote people’s navigational map reading competence with digital maps. How to design trainings for specific sub-competencies of navigational map reading such as self-localization, map alignment or object recognition? How to design virtual environments to provide an optimal environment to systematically test navigational map reading competence?