Feasibility of the Space-Time Cube in Temporal Cultural Landscape Visualization

Change acts as an inherent characteristic of the landscape, and expresses dynamic interactions between its tangible and intangible elements. While the documentation and analysis of spatiotemporal patterns have been broadly discussed, major challenges concern the design of task-oriented, user-friendly landscape visualizations. Geographic information system (GIS) techniques and approaches from visual analytics may bring solutions to those questions. This paper considers the milestone documents for the representation of cultural heritage, and proposes a workflow for assessing the feasibility of the space–time cube concept in landscape representation. The usability of the visualization was examined during the interview with domain experts and potential interdisciplinary users. The evaluation session covered benchmark tasks, feedback, and eye-tracking. The performance of the space–time cube was compared with another spatiotemporal visualization technique and measured in terms of correctness, response time, and satisfaction. The Royal Castle in Warsaw, which was registered in 1980 as a part of Warsaw’s World Heritage Site of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), served as the case study. The user tests show that the designed space–time cube excels for the completion rate; however, more time is required to provide answers to question tasks focusing on comparisons. Together, the case study and feedback from domain experts and participants demonstrate the benefit of the space–time cube concept in designing landscape visualizations.

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