Beyond Speed and Accuracy, Let's Focus on Engagement and Memorability

Beyond Speed and Accuracy,
Let's Focus on Engagement and Memorability:
Crea>ng New Instruments for Evalua>ng
Cartographic Anima>ons
@JoannaMerson
Arizona State University

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“Anima5ons are o6en too complex or
too fast to be accurately perceived.”
Arc5c Ice Melt. NOAA Climate.gov

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Outline
•  How and why animated techniques are
commonly leveraged in maps
•  Strengths and limita5ons of tradi5onal speed/
accuracy style assessments
•  Framework for the "understanding,
engagement, and recall" method.

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Finding anima5on in
academic cartography…
SELECT * FROM journals
WHERE
CONTAINS (animated map or
dynamic map)

…I wish

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What is being shown
Sta>c Data Dynamic Data
-‐  Linear ﬂow data (wind water)
-‐ Moving points (migra5on, airplanes)
-‐  Surface ﬂow (pollu5on)
-‐ Census/count surveys
(popula5on, point events)
-‐Land cover (types, values)

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What is being shown
How is it shown
Interac>ve Animated
-‐  Flyovers
-‐  View changes
-‐  Data transforma5ons

*
*it’s not… but
that’s another
topic
-‐  Brushing
-‐  Linking
-‐  Callouts
-‐  Time-‐series/5me lapse
-‐  Blinking/ﬂashing
-‐ “Mo5cons”/semi-‐sta5c

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Why is it being animated?
-‐  To test the “eﬀec5veness” of…

Something that would be
diﬃcult or impossible to
convey in sta5c form.

-‐ Exploratory purpose
-‐  Communica5ve purpose

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•  Boaom-‐up assessments
speed and accuracy assessments
•  how quickly and correctly users can complete
speciﬁc, usually low-‐level, tasks
eye-‐tracking
Does the anima5on work?
majority

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Results of these assessments?
•  high contrast colors and blinking symbols ü
•  users follow transi5ons
ü
•  5me spent correlated to performance as
diﬃculty increased
•  informa5on diﬃcult to perceive due to
overloading informa5on û
•  change blindness û

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On assessing graphs vs tables:
One must be careful not to fall into a
conceptual trap by adop>ng accuracy as a
criterion. We are not saying that the primary
purpose of a graph is to convey numbers with as
many decimal places as possible. … If this were
the only goal, tables would be beaer. The power
of a graph is its ability to enable one to … see
paaerns and structure not readily revealed by
other means.
-‐ Cleavland and McGill (1984)

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On assessing animated vs sta5c maps:
One must be careful not to fall into a
conceptual trap by adop>ng accuracy as a
criterion. I am not saying that the primary
purpose of an animated map is to convey data
with as much accuracy as possible. … If this were
the only goal, sta5c maps would be beaer. The
power of an anima5on is its ability to enable one
to … see spa5al-‐temporal paaerns and structure
not readily revealed by other means.
-‐ Merson (today!)

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What is being shown
How is it shown
Interac>ve Animated
-‐  Brushing
-‐  Linking
-‐  Callouts
-‐  Flyovers
-‐  View changes
-‐  Data transforma5ons
-‐ Census/count surveys
(popula5on, point events)
-‐Land cover (types, values)
Sta0c values
measured
repeatedly over
0me
-‐  Linear ﬂow data
(water)
-‐ Surface ﬂow (pollu5on, wind)
-‐ Moving points (migra5on,
airplanes)

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Animated
Dynamic Data
-‐  Linear ﬂow data
(water)
-‐ Surface ﬂow (pollu5on, wind)
-‐ Moving points (migra5on,
airplanes)
Snapshots of intrinsically,
con0nuously moving data
represented with mo0on
What is being shown
How is it shown

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Wind Example

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Minard Example

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•  Boaom-‐up assessments
speed and accuracy assessments
•  how quickly and correctly users can complete speciﬁc,
usually low-‐level, tasks
eye-‐tracking
•  gaze path paaerns
•  Top-‐down assessments (broadly in cartography)
–  less common for map assessments
–  memorability evalua5on assessments
–  learning facilita5on assessments
–  task outcome assessments

Does the anima5on work?

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The
understanding, engagement, & recall
method

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understanding
Data retrieval precise data ques5ons (what, where, when)
Map interpreta5on ques5ons (direc5on, trends, comparisons)
Map narra5ve ques5ons (iden5fy overall “message”)
engagement
Time spent “exploring the map”
User experience ques5ons (reac5on card method)
recall
Reask data retrieval ques5ons (can you remember…)
Reask map interpreta5on and user experience
Open ended recall (describe the content, look, and anything
else that s5cks out in your mind of the map you saw last 5me)

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Expected results
The users of the animated maps will…

1) have reduced speed and accuracy of responses to speciﬁc
map data ques5ons.

However,
2) report a more posi5ve and thought provoking experience

3) remember more informa5on with more accuracy, and
remember a more posi5ve experience

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Arc5c Ice Melt. NOAA Climate.gov

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understanding
Data retrieval precise data ques5ons (what, where, when)
Map interpreta5on ques5ons (direc5on, trends, comparisons)
Map narra5ve ques5ons (iden5fy overall “message”)
engagement
Time spent “exploring the map”
User experience ques5ons (reac5on card method)
recall
Reask data retrieval ques5ons (can you remember…)
Reask map interpreta5on and user experience
Open ended recall (describe the content, look, and anything
else that s5cks out in your mind of the map you saw last 5me)

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@JoannaMerson
[email protected]
Ques5ons?
Feedback?

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Beyond Speed and Accuracy, Let's Focus on Engagement and Memorability

Beyond Speed and Accuracy, Let's Focus on Engagement and Memorability

Nathaniel V. KELSO

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