firemonkey wrote:
My sense of direction is poor and I'm wondering whether a GPS would help. Would poor map reading skills be a barrier to using one? I am not sure how a GPS would explain things .
A GPS certainly doesn't help me; I'm completely incapable of reading maps, GPS or no GPS.
I personally orient myself with the help of concrete things, such as trees, buildings that stand out, corner shops, parks, and so on. Over the years, I've developed a system that serves me very well for getting places. I know the city well in very general terms, so I take a bus to the somewhere in the general vicinity I know how to get to. Once there, I repeatedly ask people to direct me to the place I am going. They'll usually give complex directions, such as "second left, third right", and so on, which I can't handle, but I can remember the first portion. After completing the first portion, I just ask someone else again. Once I have been to the place once, I can follow the same route in the exact same way again. The first time I go to a place, I leave a lot of extra time to allow for this.