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La Peste series (Movistar Plus+) represented a pre-pandemic benchmark in transmedia and hybrid (online and offline) fictional storytelling. This research delves into the keys for the construction of suspense through the development of interactive actions that place the public in a leading position in the story through the dialogue between geographical, fictional and expanded space. Therefore, we will examine the resignification of the city through the image built up by the participation of the viewer -in the series- and the user -in the transmedia actions-. We address both the study of the fictional and augmented space, taking into account the territory occupied by the different strata that made up the city in the sixteenth century, and the processes of expansion of the contents through interactive cartographies, movie maps, and Alternative Reality Games (ARG). As a result, we observe an expansion of the series through the metaphor of the map in an expedition that flits between past and present; fiction and reality; geographical space and cyberspace; the traditional medium -television series- and multiplatform formats, which produces at the same time a novel approach to the urban space of Seville from an experiential perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La Peste series (Movistar Plus+) represented a pre-pandemic benchmark in transmedia and hybrid (online and offline) fictional storytelling. This research delves into the keys for the construction of suspense through the development of interactive actions that place the public in a leading position in the story through the dialogue between geographical, fictional and expanded space. Therefore, we will examine the resignification of the city through the image built up by the participation of the viewer -in the series- and the user -in the transmedia actions-. We address both the study of the fictional and augmented space, taking into account the territory occupied by the different strata that made up the city in the sixteenth century, and the processes of expansion of the contents through interactive cartographies, movie maps, and alternative reality games (ARG). As a result, we observe an expansion of the series through the metaphor of the map in an expedition that flits between past and present; fiction and reality; geographical space and cyberspace; the traditional medium -television series- and multiplatform formats, which produces at the same time a novel approach to the urban space of Seville from an experiential perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FlowMapper.org is a web-based framework for automated production and design of origin-destination flow maps. FlowMapper has four major features that contribute to the advancement of existing flow mapping systems. First, users can upload and process their own data to design and share customized flow maps. The ability to save data, cartographic design and map elements in a project file allows users to easily share their data and/or cartographic design with others. Second, users can generate customized flow symbols to support different flow map reading tasks such as comparing flow magnitudes and directions and identifying flow and location clusters that are strongly connected with each other. Third, FlowMapper supports supplementary layers such as node symbols, choropleth, and base maps to contextualize flow patterns with location references and characteristics. Finally, the web-based architecture of FlowMapper supports server-side computational capabilities to process and normalize large flow data and reveal natural patterns of flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

FlowMapper.org is a web-based framework for automated production and design of origin-destination flow maps. FlowMapper has four major features that contribute to the advancement of existing flow mapping systems. First, users can upload and process their own data to design and share customized flow maps. The ability to save data, cartographic design and map elements in a project file allows users to easily share their data and/or cartographic design with others. Second, users can generate customized flow symbols to support different flow map reading tasks such as comparing flow magnitudes and directions and identifying flow and location clusters that are strongly connected with each other. Third, FlowMapper supports supplementary layers such as node symbols, choropleth, and base maps to contextualize flow patterns with location references and characteristics. Finally, the web-based architecture of FlowMapper supports server-side computational capabilities to process and normalize large flow data and reveal natural patterns of flows.

Technology has transformed maps into interactive tools for exploring and understanding the world. In this article, we present the user experience (UX) design process for Flyover Country (http://flyovercountry.io), a mobile mapping application that visualizes information about the Earth’s geology and history, allowing users to save and then access the information offline while flying, driving, or hiking. Specifically, the paper presents a UX design study that tracks the conceptualization, implementation, and revision of Flyover Country, and employs scenario-based design to walk through a pair of use case scenarios that informed our UX design: science outreach to the general public and field trip guides for geoscience education. In the paper, we note UX design insights that are potentially transferable to other mobile mapping contexts, organizing insights by mobile representation design (scale, projection, symbolization, and typography) versus mobile interaction design (map entry point, bottom navigation, floating action button, and pull-up information panel).

Interactive and web-based data visualizations are now widely adopted to make climate change information more accessible, actionable, and meaningful. Despite the rapid uptake of such climate visualization tools (CVTs), there is little research on the design considerations that underpin their efficacy in meeting needs for climate change science and communication. To address this gap, we present a framework and comparative analysis of 41 public facing CVTs, assessing their purpose, data content, visual representation, interactivity, and web technology. Our analysis reveals several trends, including a tendency to focus on meteorological datasets over climate impacts, the widespread use of interactive maps for displaying climate data and the growing use of interactive options to promote sharing of results and user configurations. We found that distinguishing CVTs as being either "exploratory" or "explanatory" in their goal was useful in characterizing their visual and interactive complexity. We archived the analysis framework and repository of 41 coded tools on GitHub (available at https://github.com/smlum/climate-vis) to support further analysis and improve the capacity of CVTs to reduce climate change and its impacts. [Display omitted] • Climate visualizations can be characterized by their purpose, data, visual representations, interactivity, and technologies. • Most climate visualizations focus on meteorological impacts. • Interactive climate visualizations are increasingly targeted at non-scientists. • Interface complexity differs between exploratory and explanatory visualizations. • Established design innovations are overlooked in many climate visualizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cartographic interactivity is now most often understood as an addition to cartographic representations for end users of electronic maps. The article substantiates the need to extend this understanding. This extension will help in creation of the modern atlas systems, which are increasingly being developed as integrated or consisting of several systems. Along with end users, expert-cartographers (developers) and analysts also become users of atlas systems and their interactive maps. Users with relevant knowledge are combined into epistemologically ordered echelons – the higher the echelon, the more knowledge about interactivity the user should possess. Therefore, atlas interactive cartography should now be considered for many simultaneously operating systems and for many users. Examples of new operations of cartographic interactivity for new echelons of users are given: for expert-cartographers this is a dynamic change (i. e. during the operation of the system) of the cartographic method of modeling actuality, and for analysts, the model itself. A review of software solutions that are used to implement extended cartographic interactivity when creating a new generation of atlas systems has been completed. To prove the results, the methods of new relational cartography are used. In particular, the method of conceptual frameworks of atlas systems is used, which allows combining the methods of classical cartography and the methods of relational cartography into the system method of future system cartography. As examples of the paradigms of classical cartography, the communicative paradigm and growth perspective of R. Roth from the University of Wisconsin-Madison are chosen.

Technology has transformed maps into interactive tools for exploring and understanding the world. In this article, we present the user experience (UX) design process for Flyover Country (http://flyovercountry.io), a mobile mapping application that visualizes information about the Earth's geology and history, allowing users to save and then access the information offline while flying, driving, or hiking. Specifically, the paper presents a UX design study that tracks the conceptualization, implementation, and revision of Flyover Country, and employs scenario-based design to walk through a pair of use case scenarios that informed our UX design: science outreach to the general public and field trip guides for geoscience education. In the paper, we note UX design insights that are potentially transferable to other mobile mapping contexts, organizing insights by mobile representation design (scale, projection, symbolization, and typography) versus mobile interaction design (map entry point, bottom navigation, floating action button, and pull-up information panel). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HazMatMapper is an online and interactive geographic visualization tool designed to facilitate exploration of transnational flows of hazardous waste in North America (http://geography.wisc.edu/hazardouswaste/map/). While conventional narratives suggest that wealthier countries such as Canada and the United States (US) export waste to poorer countries like Mexico, little is known about how waste trading may affect specific sites within any of the three countries. To move beyond anecdotal discussions and national aggregates, we assembled a novel geographic dataset describing transnational hazardous waste shipments from 2007 to 2012 through two Freedom of Information Act requests for documents held by the US Environmental Protection Agency. While not yet detailing all of the transnational hazardous waste trade in North America, HazMatMapper supports multiscale and site-specific visual exploration of US imports of hazardous waste from Canada and Mexico. It thus enables academic researchers, waste regulators, and the general public to generate hypotheses on regional clustering, transnational corporate structuring, and environmental justice concerns, as well as to understand the limitations of existing regulatory data collection itself. Here, we discuss the dataset and design process behind HazMatMapper and demonstrate its utility for understanding the transnational hazardous waste trade.

Recent advances in global population data are enabling new cartographic and analytical opportunities. The Global Human Settlement Layer is the first sub-1 km cell resolution global population density product released as open data, with many applications in the fields of global population dynamics, urban studies and natural hazard risk. There are several cartographic challenges with visualising this dataset due to the range of spatial scales that are of interest, and the extensive variation in the density of settlements patterns that exist across different regions of the globe. These challenges are tackled here using interactive mapping, allowing navigation from global to city-region scales. A detailed classification and colour scheme is developed to distinguish a wide range of densities at multiple scales. Additionally, interactive statistics are presented for direct numerical comparisons at both country and city scales, further enabling global density comparisons. The interactive map produced has received 30,000 users in four months, indicating the widespread interest in understanding global population density.

Custom user maps (also called map mashups) made on geoportals by novice users often lead to poor cartographic results, because cartographic expertise is not part of the mapmaking process. In order to integrate cartographic design functionality within a geoportal, we explored several strategies and design choices. These strategies aimed at integrating explanations about cartographic rules and functions within the mapmaking process. They are defined and implemented based on a review of human-centered design, usability best practices, and previous work on cartographic applications. Cartographic rules and functions were made part of a cartographic wizard, which was evaluated with the help of a usability study. The study results show that the overall user experience with the cartographic functions and the wizard workflow was positive, although implementing functionalities for a diverse target audience proved challenging. Additionally, the results show that offering different ways to access information is welcomed and that explanations pertaining directly to the specific user-generated map are both helpful and preferred. Finally, the results provide guidelines for user interaction design for cartographic functionality on geoportals and other online mapping platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general aim of this paper is to evaluate the influence of panning on the map user’s (attentive) behaviour, using a mixed methods approach. A user study was conducted in which participants – with an expertise in cartography – had to execute four tasks in Google Maps, using only a panning operation. During the first two tasks, participants had to follow a predefined route; during the latter two tasks they had to locate Belgium on a less detailed scale level. A strong task-related interactive behaviour was revealed by the participants’ mouse action and eye movements. Furthermore, the attentive behaviour was influenced by the type of view (map or satellite) and whether it occurs while performing the panning operation. The georeferenced eye movements were imported in a GIS for spatial analysis. Based on these spatial queries, we discovered that the duration of the fixations was associated by their location on the map. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The video game industry revolutionized the game market from the 1970s onwards. Stationary video game machines, such as "coin-ops" and, later, consoles for home entertainment made it possible to experience and interact with new virtual environments. Based on technical innovations, early video games already included different graphic and auditory effects that were used to present and emphasize the spatial dimension of game stories. One of the most famous and successful video game series that "told" spatial stories and included many visualizations of virtual topographies was Nintendo's Super Mario series. Nintendo developed diverse video game topographies including different interactive and animated cartographic media throughout the Super Mario series. These maps were early and fundamental examples that were user-friendly and suitable for children. Moreover, they established a basis for future video game spaces, and the techniques used to create, animate, and visualize these maps have also found their ways into other applications of cartography and geomatics. It seems that the early worlds of Super Mario animated cartographers to animate cartographic visualizations. This article presents the characteristic spatial structures and cartographic techniques found in early Super Mario games, from the arcade classic Donkey Kong (1981) to the Super Nintendo classic Super Mario Kart (1992). The meaning of these structures and techniques for other cartographic applications is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent advances in global population data are enabling new cartographic and analytical opportunities. The Global Human Settlement Layer is the first sub-1 km cell resolution global population density product released as open data, with many applications in the fields of global population dynamics, urban studies and natural hazard risk. There are several cartographic challenges with visualising this dataset due to the range of spatial scales that are of interest, and the extensive variation in the density of settlements patterns that exist across different regions of the globe. These challenges are tackled here using interactive mapping, allowing navigation from global to city-region scales. A detailed classification and colour scheme is developed to distinguish a wide range of densities at multiple scales. Additionally, interactive statistics are presented for direct numerical comparisons at both country and city scales, further enabling global density comparisons. The interactive map produced has received 30,000 users in four months, indicating the widespread interest in understanding global population density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HazMatMapper is an online and interactive geographic visualization tool designed to facilitate exploration of transnational flows of hazardous waste in North America (http://geography.wisc.edu/hazardouswaste/map/). While conventional narratives suggest that wealthier countries such as Canada and the United States (US) export waste to poorer countries like Mexico, little is known about how waste trading may affect specific sites within any of the three countries. To move beyond anecdotal discussions and national aggregates, we assembled a novel geographic dataset describing transnational hazardous waste shipments from 2007 to 2012 through two Freedom of Information Act requests for documents held by the US Environmental Protection Agency. While not yet detailing all of the transnational hazardous waste trade in North America, HazMatMapper supports multiscale and site-specific visual exploration of US imports of hazardous waste from Canada and Mexico. It thus enables academic researchers, waste regulators, and the general public to generate hypotheses on regional clustering, transnational corporate structuring, and environmental justice concerns, as well as to understand the limitations of existing regulatory data collection itself. Here, we discuss the dataset and design process behind HazMatMapper and demonstrate its utility for understanding the transnational hazardous waste trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides a review of the current state of science regarding cartographic interaction, a complement to the traditional focus within cartography on cartographic representation. Cartographic interaction is defined as the dialog between a human and map, mediated through a computing device, and is essential to the research into interactive cartography, geovisualization, and geovisual analytics. The review is structured around six fundamental questions facing a science of cartographic interaction: (1) what is cartographic interaction (e.g., digital versus analog interactions, interaction versus interfaces, stages of interaction, interactive maps versus mapping systems versus map mash-ups); (2) why provide cartographic interaction (e.g., visual thinking, geographic insight, the stages of science, the cartographic problematic); (3) when should cartographic interaction be provided (e.g., static versus interactive maps, interface complexity, the productivity paradox, flexibility versus constraint, work versus enabling interactions); (4) who should be provided with cartographic interaction (e.g., user-centered design, user ability, expertise, and motivation, adaptive cartography and geocollaboration); (5) where should cartographic interaction be provided (e.g., input capabilities, bandwidth and processing power, display capabilities, mobile mapping and location-based services); and (6) how should cartographic interaction be provided (e.g., interaction primitives, objective-based versus operator-based versus operand-based taxonomies, interface styles, interface design)? The article concludes with a summary of research questions facing cartographic interaction and offers an outlook for cartography as a field of study moving forward.

We present a new algorithm that enlarges a focus region in a given network map without removing non-focus (i.e., context) network parts from the map or changing the map’s size. In cartography, this problem is usually tackled with fish-eye projections, which, however, introduce severe distortion. Our new algorithm minimizes distortion and, with respect to this objective, produces results of similar quality compared to an existing algorithm. In contrast to the existing algorithm, the new algorithm achieves real-time performance that allows its application in interactive systems. We target applications where a user sets a focus by brushing parts of the network or the focus region is defined as the neighborhood of a moving user. A crucial feature of the algorithm is its capability of avoiding unwanted edge crossings. Basically, we first solve a least-squares optimization problem without constraints for avoiding edge crossings. The solution we find is then used to identify a small set of constraints needed for a crossing-free solution and, beyond this, allows us to start an animation enlarging the focus region before the final, crossing-free solution is found. Moreover, memorizing the non-crossing constraints from an initial run of the algorithm allows us to achieve a better runtime on any further run – assuming that the focus region does not move too much between two consecutive runs. As we show with experiments on real-world data, this enables response times well below 1 second. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current pace of technological innovation in web mapping offers new opportunities and creates new challenges for web cartographers. The continual development of new technological solutions produces a fundamental tension: the more flexible and expansive web mapping options become, the more difficult it is to maintain fluency in the teaching and application of these technologies. We addressed this tension by completing a three-stage, empirical process for understanding how best to learn and implement contemporary web mapping technologies. To narrow our investigation, we focused upon education at the university level, rather than a professional production environment, and upon open source client-side web mapping technologies, rather than complementary server-side or cloud-based technologies. The process comprised three studies: (1) a competitive analysis study of contemporary web mapping technologies, (2) a needs assessment survey of web map designers/developers regarding past experiences with these technologies, and (3) a diary study charting the implementation of a subset of potentially viable technologies, as identified through the first two studies. The process successfully achieved the practical goal of identifying a candidate set of web mapping technologies for teaching web mapping, and also revealed broader insights into web map design and education generally as well as ways to cope with evolving web mapping technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Providing an adequate route description requires in-depth spatial knowledge of the route in question. In this article we demonstrate that despite having travelled a route recently and having much experience of the area in question, an individual may lack such a degree of knowledge. Previous research and experience informs us that a map is an effective tool for bridging gaps in one's spatial knowledge. In this article we propose an approach, known as an Interactive Route Description, for defining and interpreting route descriptions interactively with a map. This approach is based on the concept of annotating the map in question and allows the aforementioned gap in one's spatial knowledge to be bridged. An additional benefit of defining route descriptions in this way is that it facilitates automatic parsing and in turn offers many potential applications. One such application, illustrated in this paper, is the automatic transformation to other representations of the description such as turn-by-turn instructions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vulnerability to natural hazards has many components. It is about exposure to various natural disasters, but a place's vulnerability also depends on its capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from shocks resulting from natural extreme events. To avoid increased place vulnerability due to the anticipated negative effects of climate change, local authorities need to know which places are the most vulnerable and what makes these areas vulnerable. We have developed ViewExposed to provide this information. Knowing where the most vulnerable areas are is very useful for local stakeholders, since these places may be most in need of adaptation strategies. However, stakeholders also need to have an understanding of what makes these areas vulnerable. ViewExposed provides this information using a parallel coordinates plot, a table view, sparklines, and a profile report. Although vulnerability assessment data are complex, ViewExposed has an easy-to-use interface facilitating a high degree of user interaction through multiple and linked views. An improved understanding of the many aspects of vulnerability has a far-reaching potential to inform users efficiently about factors that influence the overall vulnerability and, as a consequence, can help raise people's awareness of what makes places vulnerable to natural threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The full integration of time dimensions in GIS still represents a research challenge. A number of systems provide ways to visualise harmonised timestamped geographical data onto maps, with interpolated curves representing how these data have changed over time. However, these systems frequently mask the concerns linked to changes in territorial organisations and the harmonisation of data. In fact, the development of a territory should be considered in connection with its neighbourhood, governance and genealogy relationships. This article focuses on the difficulties linked with the ‘change of support problem’, which can arise when conducting spatio-temporal analysis of data. First, we present a data model handling the changing relationships between territories. Then, we illustrate how this model can be instantiated using examples that have taken place in Europe. We show how the model can address questions such as that of change blindness. Finally, we explain how hierarchical and genealogical relationships can be used inside an interactive cartographic tool for spatio-temporal analysis. It provides various views of the same phenomena at multiple scales, through an approach that takes into account the changes in territorial organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social Studies, including history and geography, is a core part of most state curriculum standards for K-12 education, and for the most part is in need of improvement. Among the technological solutions that have been developed, interactive maps show promise in making the complexities of the social sciences (especially historical geography) more interesting to students, and easier to visualize and understand, without demanding significant investments by schools. A two-group experiment examined this potential for the 7th Grade Utah Studies curriculum. After completing an exercise to analyze possible historical and geographical causes of settlement patterns in Utah, students using interactive maps showed significantly better improvement between a pretest and post-test than students using paper maps. Although some of the test results were inconclusive and highlighted technological and resource obstacles to the widespread adoption of interactive mapping in the classroom, it has been shown to help students learn social studies in a deeper, more engaging manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

atlas.brussels is an interactive online geovisualization tool that questions the spatial extension and the internal fragmentation of the Brussels metropolitan area. To do this, the tool focuses in an original way on spatial interaction networks considered at both the national and the metropolitan scales. Among these networks appear movements of people (as home-to-work commuting), communications (as phone calls) and economic interactions (through the road freight interactions). Therefore, atlas.brussels combines, supplements, expands and promotes researches made on the metropolitan area of Brussels, and remains open to the integration of other datasets.