Hi, I’m Gian-Luca

I am a passionate musician and a senior researcher at the HCI Lab at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. My research primarily focuses on mobile navigation technology and its impact on us, both as individuals and as a society. In my role as an HCI researcher, I enjoy designing, implementing, and evaluating novel technologies, especially in the field.

If I'm not engaging in navigation studies, I play punk rock drums as loud and fast as possible.

Recent Projects and Publications

Navigation devices have become an indispensable part of our everyday lives. What many people do not know, however, is that GPS & Co can also have negative side effects on both an individual and societal level. Prof. Dr. Johannes Schöning and Dr. Gian-Luca Savino from the School of Computer Science of the HSG have initiated a research project on this topic supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation.

As-the-crow-flies (ATCF) navigation for cyclists, utilizing a direct beeline route, has been impaired by issues such as dead ends. Investigating street network attributes across 1633 cities, we find ideal ATCF environments feature long streets and numerous turning options, predominantly in East Asia and North America. Contrastingly, past ATCF studies, primarily in less-suited Western Europe, influence our design implications and encourage research diversification in various geographical contexts.

Bio

Dr. Gian-Luca Savino is a Senior Researcher at the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, University of St. Gallen. His research focuses on mobile navigation technologies and urban analytics with a human-centered design approach. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of St. Gallen, with his dissertation exploring the effects of decoupling the design space for mobile navigation technologies. He currently contributes his research to projects related to the societal effects of navigation technologies and sustainable routing.