Evaluating Geographic Visualization Tools and Methods

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the contribution that fields such as experimental design and human–computer interaction can make to geovisualization. In particular, it shows the ways multiple techniques can be combined not only to evaluate a system’ s effectiveness, but also to address the complex issue of task definition in geovisualization research. A methodology for defining a task typology is suggested and used to evaluate a geovisualization system. The results from the evaluation suggest that the approach taken can serve to refine existing task characterizations to reflect the cognitive visual operations that spatial data and geovisualizations can support. The main finding is that there may be fundamental differences between the cognitive processes required to participate in the visualization of geographic spaces and those required for visualization of information spaces that are not spatial. The possibilities for cross-fertilization among the evaluation methods reported and the revived interest in cognitive research in geovisualization and GISc seem particularly pertinent currently.