Expanding Display Size and Resolution for Viewing Geospatial Data: A User Study with Multiple-Monitor High-Resolution Displays

Multiple-monitor configurations provide attainable, low-cost ways to create large, high-resolution displays. Increased screen space is particularly useful for viewing and interpreting rich, complex geospatial datasets, as both context and amount of detail can be simultaneously increased. To explore the utility of increasing display size and resolution for viewing geospatial data, this experiment required 57 subjects to perform map and image reading tasks using raster and vector data on one of three different monitor configurations: one (1280 × 1024 pixels), four (2560 × 2048 pixels), and nine (3840 × 3072 pixels). A computer program captured subject performance by recording answers, mouse-click locations, viewing areas, tool usage, and elapsed time. A post-experiment questionnaire obtained additional qualitative feedback about subjects' testing experiences. Overall, subjects performed more efficiently on the larger display configurations, as evidenced by a reduction in completion time and in virtual navigation (mouse clicks) used to finish the test. Tool usage also differed among monitor conditions, with navigation tools dominating on the single monitor and selection tools (tools used to provide answers) dominating on the nine-monitor display. Although overall results indicated the effectiveness of larger displays, task-level analyses showed that performance varied considerably from task to task.