Natch: A Watch-like Display for Less Distracting Pedestrian Navigation

Abstract

Modern Smartphones have enabled navigation system developers to provide their solutions to pedestrians. However, interacting with mobile devices can result in distraction and fragmented attention. We therefore investigated how the navigation systems’ information presentation can be designed in a less distracting way. We propose a prototype called Natch (short for navigation watch): on a wrist-mounted display a reduced set of navigation information is displayed (direction, distance to next decision point and street name). In addition, a vibration motor sewn into the watchstrap is used to alert the user when reaching a decision point. In a field study we investigated if this design distracts the user less than a commercial Smartphone-based navigation system. Nine participants navigated through a city centre with both devices. The results show that Natch users made less navigation errors, felt less visible, and were less distracted by the device.