Case study: design and assessment of an enhanced geographic information system for exploration of multivariate health statistics

Abstract

The multidimensional nature of many types of data in modern geography calls for creative and innovative approaches to their analysis. Statisticians have recently developed methods for exploring and visualizing large, multivariate datasets, but cartographers and geographers in general have only recently begun to integrate these methods for use with spatial and spatiotemporal datasets that are multivariate in character. This article will present an example of such an integration—an environment for visualization of health statistics—as a case study to demonstrate the philosophical and practical advantages of geovisualization systems for the exploration of complex spatiotemporal information. Emphasis is placed on the encouragement of creative thinking about geographic phenomena through the use of such data‐rich graphical tools.

For your eyes only? Evaluating a coordinated and multiple views tool with a map, a parallel coordinated plot and a table using an eye-tracking approach

“…Participants' willingness to work with a particular visualization method in various task types supports Roberts's (2008) claim that users might find different methods better for data manipulation. Response times and accuracy did not differ for users who focused on different views and those who used only one view in a particular task, confirming Edsall's (2003a) conclusion that there is no difference in response accuracy between visualization methods. However, Edsall (2003a) examined PCP and scatterplot only, whereas we investigated map, PCP and table.…”

“…Two of the three selected visualization methods for our study (map and table) are widely applied in CMV tools and recognized for their usefulness (Edsall 2003a, Koua et al 2006). However, some GIScience studies have revealed that the third visualization method, PCP, is confusing and difficult to use (Convertino et al 2003, Robinson et al 2005.…”

“…Integrating various views can be more helpful than using individual displays (Edsall 2003a), but users may become confused and overwhelmed when using a CMV tool (Baldonado et al 2000) and even more so because of a growing diversity of representations (Griffin and Fabrikant 2012). Although several authors have addressed the issue of how CMV tools work for users (e.g.…”

A Dual-View Visualization of In-Car Communication Processes

“…Other common forms of coordination are the synchronization of navigation (e.g., between a map browser and an overview window) and item selection from an overview for presenting details in an adjacent window (e.g., selecting an email from a header list). MCV systems have been found to improve user performance in a variety of scenarios (e.g., [10,4,9]). However, drawbacks of the MCV approach include the increased display requirements and the effort for the users to constantly switch between different views [3].…”

A Design Framework for Exploratory Geovisualization in Epidemiology

“…2 ESTAT development has its genesis in earlier work focused on developing modules for commercial GIS software that coordinated multiple views on spatial data. 3 The initial mixture of tools in ESTAT was specified by National Cancer Institute (NCI) based on this prior work. The component design and their functional specifications together with the toolkits' application to an epidemiological case study are described in detail elsewhere.…”