Incorporating landmarks in driver navigation system design: an overview of results from the REGIONAL project

This paper presents an overview of results from the 2 year REGIONAL project. The aims of REGIONAL were to undertake research to enable landmarks to be an integral feature of future vehicle navigation systems. Results from the project, including 5 empirical road-based trials, are summarised. The main findings were: landmarks were widely used by drivers as key navigation cues; the incorporation of good landmarks within navigation instructions has the potential to considerably enhance vehicle navigation systems; although a wide range of landmarks are potentially useful to a driver, only a limited set, which displayed key characteristics, were consistently effective as navigation cues.