Slines, entropy, and environmental exploration

This paper addresses the question of how to create environments that people will want to explore. Four environmental properties (slines, entropy, floor area, and shape) were tested for exploration time in three experiments that included thirty-eight virtual environments and sixty participants. Slines had the strongest effect on exploration time (<i>r=</i>0.36), followed by entropy (<i>r=</i>0.34). Floor area and shape had much smaller effects on exploration time (<i>r=</i>0.10 and <i>r=</i>0.09, respectively). Possibilities for future research are discussed.