Usability of Spatio-Temporal Uncertainty Visualisation Methods

Abstract

The presented work helps users of spatio-temporal uncertainty visualisation methods to select suitable methods according to their data and requirements. For this purpose, an extensive web-based survey has been carried out to assess the usability of selected methods for users in different domains, such as GIS and spatial statistics. The results of the survey are used to incorporate a usability parameter in a categorisation design to characterise the uncertainty visualisation methods. This enables users to determine the uncertainty visualisation method(s) that are most suitable according to their domain of expertise. Finally, the categorisation design has been implemented and incorporated in a web-based tool as the Uncertainty Visualisation Selector. This web application can automatically recommend suitable uncertainty visualisation method(s) from user and data requirements.

How to Assess Visual Communication of Uncertainty? A Systematic Review of Geospatial Uncertainty Visualisation User Studies

“…when additional graphical objects are used to represent uncertainty, typically approaches using glyphs or error bars (Alberti, 2013;Drecki, 2002;Sanyal et al, 2009;Slocum et al, 2003), grid-based techniques (Kardos et al, 2007;Kinkeldey et al, 2014) or contouring (Senaratne et al, 2012).…”

“…While most studies assess coincident approaches, there are a number of studies that involve a direct comparison between adjacent and coincident views (Aerts et al, 2003;Edwards and Nelson, 2001;Evans, 1997;Gerharz and Pebesma, 2009;Kardos, 2003;Kardos, 2007;Kubíček and Šašinka, 2011;Kunz et al, 2011;MacEachren et al, 1998;Retchless, 2012;Senaratne et al, 2012;Viard et al, 2011).…”

“…As the display typically can become complex when uncertainty is added to data depictions, there have also been numerous attempts to utilize dynamic views. Some of these use non-interactive animation (Aerts et al, 2003;Blenkinsop et al, 2000;Evans, 1997;Kardos et al, 2003;Kardos et al, 2007;Zhang et al, 2008) and some incorporate interactive interfaces (Alberti, 2013;Blenkinsop et al, 2000;Evans, 1997;Gerharz and Pebesma, 2009;Slocum et al, 2003;Senaratne et al, 2012).…”

“…experience in using geographic information (Gerharz and Pebesma, 2009;Kardos et al, 2008), experience with the concept of uncertainty and its visualisation (Kardos et al, 2008;Kinkeldey et al, 2014), experience in maps and mapping (Evans, 1997, MacEachren et al, 2012, training or knowledge in the application domain (Aerts et al, 2003;Kolbeinsson, 2013;Kunz et al, 2011;Senaratne et al, 2012) or computer literacy more generally (Newman and Lee, 2004). Self-assessment was often used to determine the subjects' expertise, especially when participants were recruited via the web (Aerts et al, 2003;Kinkeldey et al, 2014;Senaratne et al, 2012). A number of studies define groups with different levels of expertise (e.g.…”

“…All in all, the type and level of expertise of participants often remain unclear and groups are usually heterogeneous in expertise. Aerts et al (2003), Leitner and Buttenfield (2000), Senaratne et al (2012), Vullings et al (2013), Zhang et al (2008) Remote sensing, land cover/land use Blenkinsop et al (2000), Drecki (2002), Evans (1997), Kinkeldey et al (2014), Senaratne et al (2012) …”