Comparison of point symbol display methods in animated cartography.

摘要

The rise and continuing development of the World Wide Web as a ubiquitous medium has provided a practical, popular and easily accessible platform to disseminate all manner of information, including animated maps. Several studies have shown that animated maps can effectively depict spatial-temporal trends, though there is sparse research on how best to convey such information cartographically. This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of four spatial-temporal point-level display methods. Four animated maps were created for each of the display methods. Participants viewed eight maps incorporating two of the four methods (four maps for each method). Individual maps were viewed three times. Immediately after the third viewing participants were asked to mark on a corresponding paper map where they remembered cluster centers to have occurred. They were also instructed to mark cluster order and time of appearance relative to the span of the animation. Results indicated that participants were generally adept at these tasks in all symbol display methods, though significant statistical differences were detected. The results also showed that no specific symbol presents itself as a best-practices solution for conveying both spatial and temporal information.