Cultural Constraints in the Design of Pictographic Symbols

Abstract

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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.     

Opening the London Underground to visually handicapped tourists

Abstract

There are several practical rules for determining categories (class intervals) for maps representing statistical data, like arithmetic, geometric or equal steps etc. In this paper, however a coherent method is proposed to provide statistically separable Classes on a map with minimum redundancy in terms of information content.

The number of class intervals can be directly computed by means of appropriate statistical methods if the widths of classes are determined by t-test, i.e. when their difference is significant at a high level of confidence. A class narrower than this width would represent data in different categories due only to variance, however, the selection of wider classes leads to a certain loss of information.

The class intervals determined this way should be positioned on the statistical data-set so that each category contains approximately equal number of data providing maximum information content of the output map. At the final step the class intervals derived this way should be rounded, if necessary, to provide user-friendly maps.     

Cartographic Design and Production in the Internet Era: The Example of Tourist Web Maps

Abstract

Some, but not all, branches of the tourist industry make heavy use of maps. The industry has discovered the marketing potential of the Internet but in many cases has not yet fully exploited the extra potential of web maps compared to the traditional paper maps. Web maps can up-to-date tourist information very well but they have to be carefully designed to take account of the limitations of the medium. To be most effective, web maps should be basically simple and convey sufficient information interactively, on request. The map and symbol design should convey intuitively where and how this interaction can take place. This paper summarizes the typical faults found in tourist web map design and provides suggestions on good design practice.     

John Keates and Recreation Mapping: Personal Recollections

Abstract

John Keates is very well known for his numerous scholarly contributions to cartography as an academic discipline and science. However, throughout his career, he was also very actively involved in the design and production of maps. Mostly these were specialized thematic maps produced as the result of scientific research in the field sciences, especially in geology, glaciology and vegetation studies. However, during the 1970s he was much involved in the design and production of a considerable number of maps for recreation purposes, including maps for orienteering. Many of these maps were regarded at that time as being extremely innovative in terms of their cartographic design and layout. The article outlines the development of what became known as the 'Glasgow' style of map design John Keates' involvement with recreation maps in the 1970s.     

IndoorTubes A Novel Design for Indoor Maps

Efforts within cartography on indoor maps have previously not received a lot of attention. Work that has been carried out on indoor maps often focus on map design very similar to an architectural style (Klippel et al. 2006; Ciavarella and Paternò 2004). In some cases the design has been of a more novel character where approaches with augmented and virtual realities have been carried out (Radoczky 2007; Müller et al. 2006). Common to these approaches is the depiction of one floor per map. As well, the primary user task is often solely personal navigation. In this article I present an innovative approach to indoor maps. The design is directly inspired by underground tube maps first developed by Harry Beck (Garland 1994) and today a common design for public transport maps. The main advantages of the map design are its simplicity and the possibility of including all floors in one map view. This allows the map user to easier comprehend the structure of the building without using several maps, as commonly needed with today's indoor map designs. I present several different map styles each intended to satisfy different user groups and tasks depending on the user's familiarity with the environment. In addition the article motivate for new application areas suitable for indoor maps, especially large hospitals. I hypothesize that the design proposed in this article leans very well to displaying real-time dynamic geospatial information, such as patients, staff, equipment and room availability within hospitals. Due to the early phase of the work presented here I outline the needed further work and possibilities of technological platforms as well as evaluations necessary in order for the design to gain acceptance and success.     

Exploring differences of visual attention in pedestrian navigation when using 2D maps and 3D geo-browsers

ABSTRACT

Despite the now-ubiquitous two-dimensional (2D) electronic maps, three-dimensional (3D) globe viewers, or 3D geo-browsers such as Google Earth and NASA World Wind have gained much attention. However, the effect of such interactive 3D geo-browsers on spatial knowledge acquisition and decision-making is not well known. This study aims to explore the potential benefits of using interactive 3D geo-browsers in three processes of pedestrian navigation (self-localization, spatial knowledge acquisition, and decision-making) in digital environments. We employed eye tracking to show differences of visual attention in pedestrian navigation between a 2D map (Google Map) and a 3D geo-browser (Google Earth). The results indicated that benefits and drawbacks of 3D representations are task dependent. Participants using the 3D geo-browser had an extensively visual search resulting in significantly longer response time than the 2D participants for spatial knowledge acquisition, whereas 3D users performed a more efficient visual search and resulted in a better navigation performance at complex decision points. We speculate that the inefficient knowledge acquisition when using the 3D geo-browser was most probably due to information overload and obstructed views. Landmarks in photorealistic 3D models assisted recall of spatial knowledge from mental maps, which contributed to efficient decision-making at a complex turning point. These empirical results can be helpful to improve the usability of pedestrian navigation systems.     

Korea: A Cartographic History

Abstract