Navigation systems are popular mobile applications (Raper et al 2008). These systems support the user in his wayfinding task. Usually modern nav ig tion devices offer a perspective map view in addition to the traditional 2D map view. Bu t does this additional map view improve the user’s ability to find his way correctly and fast o r can perspective map views be only interpreted as nice gimmicks? This question is in line with Zip f’s (2003) call for more empirical research on visualization alternatives in mobile maps. We de ci d to create own empirical data in a usability test in order to answer this question, us ing a sample size which enables reasonable statistical interpretation of the result.

In most mobile navigation devices perspective map view is offered as an alternative to the traditional 2D map view. This paper describes a map usability test , which studies differences in the usability of bot h map views, with the result, that no significant dif ferences can be found.