Among the various interactions between user and the virtual envirionment (VE), the navigation has its importance as fundamental one. It is necessary to analyze and evaluate the performance of navigation for designing and selecting effective task environments and navigation devices. The performance is typically evaluated by the time cost and the accuracy. The basic elements which determine the performance are identified by the device control points, the relationship of control points, the navigation task and the user. Their effects on the performance are presented and justified by experiments. The testbed is designed to characterize the performance of the navigation using the performance model. Using the testbed, differences in various devices and users are identified. The performance model and the testbed can be used to design or select a effective device for the navigation. It also can be used as an evaluation method of the training effect in the virtual environment.