Nowadays, there is a wide range of commercial LBMS (Location-Based Mobile Services) available in the market, mainly in the form of GPS-based navigation solutions, and a trend towards the display of 3D maps can be clearly observed. Given the complete disparity of ideas and a visible commercial orientation in the industry, the study of the visualisation aspects that influence user performance and experience in the exploration of urban environments using 3D maps becomes an important issue. In this work, a generic conceptual framework is proposed whose main purpose is to objectively evaluate the impact and contribution of the major visualisation elements involved (henceforth mentioned as feature vectors). With this framework in mind, an online questionnaire was developed and administered to 149 test subjects in order to measure the real impact of feature vectors. The results clearly demonstrated that certain features have clear impact on user performance, and should be taken in account in LBMS development. As an example, just by displaying buildings with a 3D appearance, subjects were able to match more accurately the real environment with the one presented on a mobile device. In general, users were able to perform the tasks entrusted to them faster, if they were provided more realistic imagery.
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