Investigating the Effectiveness of AR-enhanced Signage in Multi-purpose Commercial Complexes: Focusing on response time to directional signage

The aim of this study was to investigate next level digital signage utilizing augmented reality for multi-purpose commercial complexes. Recently, despite the rapid growth of the urban solution, mixed-use commercial complexes have experienced significant problems in terms of way finding. As a potential solution to the problem, this study sought to determine the effectiveness of state-of-the-art augmented reality (AR) on way finding. Focusing on the response time to directional signage, this study compared way finding through traditional signage with AR-enhanced signage. The response time in milliseconds was measured using a program developed with Python. In all, 30 sign images were presented to 48 participants in random order. A third of them included existing signs as the control condition, and the others were AR signs with half graphic and half text. The results of this study demonstrated that AR-enhanced signage had tremendous potential to improve way finding performance in multi-purpose commercial complexes. Results revealed that response time to directional signage was reduced in AR environments. In particular, the AR signage system combining text and graphics was useful in terms ofboth response time and cognitive appraisal.