Talk: Christoph Hölscher – Wayfinding, Interaction & Design, 12. Januar 2015

Christoph Hölscher is Professor of Cognitive Science at ETH Zürich since 2013, with an emphasis on Applied Cognitive Science. He holds a PhD in Psychology from University of Freiburg (Germany), serves as honorary senior research fellow at UCL, Bartlett School of Architecture, and as visiting Professor at Northumbria University Newcastle.

“Why is wayfinding in public settings (airports, malls, etc.) often challenging and what can we do about it?  The core mission of the Chair for Cognitive Science at ETH Zurich is to help understand the complex interaction of humans and their physical, technical and social environment with an emphasis on cognitive processes and task-oriented behavior.

In the area of human-computer interaction this includes projects on how people interact with desktop computers and digital mobile devices, e.g. ongoing research with Google Indoor Maps in museums and university settings. In our work on building usability we emphasize collaboration with architectural design researchers on orientation and navigation in complex public buildings and urban environments.

Understanding how environmental features as well as individual spatial abilities shape orientation as well as movement behaviors can help architects improve the usability and user experience of their building designs. We employ spatial analysis tools such as Space Syntax, behavior observation and targeted user experiments, eye-tracking studies and Virtual Reality simulation as part of human-centered design support and evaluation. I will provide an overview of these studies and hope to discuss how this can extend to movement behavior of groups and how multi-agent simulation can be integrated.”

Christoph Hölscher / ETH Zürich
Wayfinding, Interaction & Design: Information Processing in Space

Talk: Monday, January 12th 2015 / 19:00
Room 116 / van de Velde Werkstatt
Geschwister-Scholl-Str. 7
99423 Weimar

This talk is part of the Bauhausinteraction Colloquium.