The effects of correlated colour temperature on wayfinding: a study in a virtual airport environment

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the effects of lighting's correlated colour temperature (CCT) on wayfinding performance in airports and to compare different CCTs to understand their effects on wayfinding performance. The experiment was conducted in a single phase with the participation of three different groups of university students who experienced the virtual airport environment in three different lighting settings: 3000 K, 6500 K and 12,000 K. The participants were asked to direct the researcher from the starting point to the final destination. It was found that CCT has no significant effect on wayfinding performance in terms of time spent, total number of errors, total number of decision points or route choice. However, CCT does have a significant effect on hesitation; the number of hesitations decreased when CCT increased from 3000 K to 12,000 K. Gender difference was also explored regarding hesitations in this study.