As technology advances, new ways to interact with systems become available to system designers. One such advancement that is being used in various virtual environments today is the technique of using "teleportation" to navigate through environments. Teleportation is defined as the movement from one location in an environment to a distant location instantaneously. As with most technological advances, this technique has tremendous potential benefits (reduced travel time, less chance for navigation error) if used correctly. On the other hand, like many new techniques and technologies, if used incorrectly, the drawbacks can be just as great (inaccurate mental map development, chance of being lost increased).

The purpose of the following paper is twofold. First, based on the current literature and experimentation, it lays out guidelines for the design and use of teleportation systems within virtual environments. Secondly, it introduces a new interactive map-based teleportation technique which should be useful when there is a need for accurate mental map development within the virtual environment. The proposed system should allow for a totally interconnected environment while not taking away from the spatial learning component which is essential in most virtual environments.