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CHAPTER TWO

The User’s Spatial Cognition Ability experience, and helps the user feel supported and increase their
satisfaction with the system.

American scholar Donald A. Norman pointed out in "Emotional
Kevin Lynch described in "Image of the City" how city residents
Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things" that emotions
perceive and remember the spatial characteristics of the city. Users'
play a vital role in life. They give us value, allow us to make
spatial cognitive ability may also provide guidance for improving
valuable judgments, and let us know the priorities of things
the navigation experience of SETU, Carlow. As described by
(Norman, 2004).
Kevin Lynch in “Image of the City”, a user's mental map is often

composed of five qualities: Paths, Edges, Districts, Nodes and
For users entering the campus for the first time, anxiety and
landmarks (Lynch, 1960).
nervousness may increase. Through the use of emotionally-

designed guidance signs, such as comfortable colors or natural
By applying these elements to the SETU, Carlow campus,
elements, users can relax and trust the navigation system more,
researchers can investigate and analyze the mental map created
which can alleviate users' anxiety and improve the navigation
by freshmen and visitors to the campus layout. In this way, the
experience.
core elements of the campus navigation system can be clarified,
making the design more close to the psychological needs of users.

"Paths", "Edges", "Districts", "Nodes" and "landmarks" are the key

elements in constructing a user's mental map, which can be used

by an interactive guidance system to optimize the user's navigation
experience and make the system more in line with the user's

cognitive habits.

Emotional Design And Its Impact On Users

Bringing emotional design into the navigation system and making

the user feel comfortable throughout the navigation builds trust in
Figure 3 Don Norman’s 3 Levels of Emotional Design (Achintha Isuru 2023)
the system, and trust is an important part of the navigation

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