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International crisis management is a field where numerous national, organisational and domain cultures encounter one another, causing problems in information transfer between various actors. The symbols used in situation maps in this kind of an environment should be culturally independent and value-free in order to be properly understood. However, designing culturally independent symbols is difficult because the cultural background of an individual is complex and influences the interpretation of symbols in many ways. In this paper, we discuss the influences of different cultural background factors on both the design and the comprehension of map symbols. Cultural influences are considered as conventions in code systems, definitions in formal and informal conceptual models, and conventions in aesthetic judgments. As examples in the discussion, we use findings from a symbol design project for situation maps in international crisis management.

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Maps should be legible at all scales, and the information density of a map should be adapted to fulfill this goal. However, there are situations in which overlapping symbols might not be easily avoided. These kinds of cluttered or over-plotted situations often occur today in geovisual analytics and in map mash-ups created using Web 2.0 technologies. In this research project, we examine via a user test the extent to which occluded symbols can still be identifiable. Specifically, we tested how different levels of occlusion affected the accuracy and response time of finding symbols that varied in either color hue, abstract shape, or pictogram. The results of the test show that the efficiency of the symbols decreases when the symbols become partially occluded. Still, even half-occluded complex shapes can be identified quite accurately. Symbols varying in color hue seem to tolerate occlusion the best.