The Role of Route-finding Software in the Process of City Spatial Organization Cognition

Environmental perception process is one of the key issues and concepts in human-environment interaction studies. The subject of perception involves discussing the physical properties of the actuator or transmitter and how humans respond to it. Environmental perception leads to understanding the environment and shapes human behavior in the environment. Therefore, many behaviors in the city change depending on how urban spaces are perceived and understood. On the other hand, the role of information technology in human life is crucial, and its achievements are increasingly affecting people’s lifestyles. Among them, mobile software by using the Internet has provided a wide range of opportunities for individuals and changed many of their past activities. Examples are route finding software that has been widely welcomed by Internet users in recent years. These apps are manufactured with different capabilities and each have their own different specifications.

This research sought to investigate these; “What impact do these route finding software have on people's cognitive process and understanding of the city's spatial organization?” and whether this impact varies in different environments (small and large cities).

The Research method is mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods. At first, the desired indicators were categorized and determined by Delphi method, then research questions were answered by using a questionnaire as well as providing cognitive maps of users of way finding software and analyzing them.

Ordinary drivers pay more attention to landmarks and fields of the city. Software users pay more attention to nodes, and finally, route-finding software does not have much impact on how urban edges are recognized.

In large cities, more people are using route-finding software to find alternative destinations and routes to find out the paths with low congestion and so on. While in small cities, more people are using software to find information about traffic congestion. In general, it can be said that people who are software users are more mentally influenced by software indicators than the second group. Also it was concluded that the side paths are more popular for software users.