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GSTI Workshop: GSTI Workshop: Alan M. MacEachrenAlan M. MacEachrenGeoVISTA Center, Dept. of Geography, Penn StateGeoVISTA Center, Dept. of Geography, Penn State

Geovisualization, Geovisual Analytics, Geovisualization, Geovisual Analytics, Spatial Cognition, Spatial LanguageSpatial Cognition, Spatial Language

positioning positioning geovisualizationgeovisualization

& geovisual analytics& geovisual analytics

Popular web mapping tools have made geographic information accessible to orders of magnitude more people than was the case just a decade ago.

For most people geographic visualization probably is synonymous with Google Earth.

Visualization for many is considered successful if the computer-generated renderings look like the world.

As a field of research, geovisualization has much broader roots and goals than usually recognized. Neither the label nor the disciplinary focus is primarily about what it appears to be.

Geographic information comes in a bewildering array of forms, both explicit and implicit, and the challenge is not to render it but to represent and reason with it

PreamblePreamble

Alan M. MacEachren, GeoVISTA Center, Dept. of Geography, Penn State – maceachren@psu.edu

from cartography, through geovisualization, from cartography, through geovisualization, to geovisual analytics: to geovisual analytics:

data data info info knowledge knowledge reasoning reasoning

Visualization in Scientific Computing (VisSC): prompting a shift from cartography geovisualization –

dynamic geovisualization – (Cartography + VisSC + EDA + HCI + InfoVis): prompting hypotheses and enabling insight

geovisualization + computation – (…) + KDD: turning data to info, uncovering patterns and relationships, supporting knowledge construction

(geo)visual analytics – (visual analytics is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces) – geovisual analytics: information foraging, heterogeneous info integration, analytical reasoning & sense-making, knowledge construction/management, and decision-making – facilitated by geo-visual (geospatial & geotemporal) interfaces

Alan M. MacEachren, GeoVISTA Center, Dept. of Geography, Penn State – maceachren@psu.edu

Visual Inquiry Toolkit

Presentation

Search for relations

Search for information

Search & filter Read & extract

Search for evidence

Schematize

Search for support

Build case

Reevaluate

Tell story

External data source

ShoeboxEvidence

fileSchema Hypotheses

Foraging loop Sense-making loop

after Pirolli & Card

Moving beyond “traditional” infovis/geovisMoving beyond “traditional” infovis/geovis

linking visual & computational methods

connecting numerical data with pictures, text, concepts

supporting an iterative, extended process of analysis evidence assembly hypothesis formation and

assessment story-telling

Improvise: Hotels.viz

GSTI WorkshopGSTI Workshop

What is solved? rendering spatial o=info at global scale many aspects of understanding enough about human perception

to generate practical design guidelines for static map-based display (e.g., choosing color) – fundamental challenges remain for dynamic display

supporting interactive multiview analytical interaction for 101 – 104/105 fixed records – fundamental scaling challenges remain

What is almost solved? serving real-time navigation info to mobile display

What has failed? attempted to take humans completely out of the loop in

strategies for addressing hard analytical problems convincing developers/users to take advantage of what we know

about perception/readability when designing map-based (and other) displays

Alan M. MacEachren, GeoVISTA Center, Dept. of Geography, Penn State – maceachren@psu.edu

GSTI WorkshopGSTI Workshop

What is missing? attention to the challenges of using heterogeneous data in real

analytical work; attention to challenges of implicit geographic information

What is next visually-enabled analytical reasoning with a (roughly) geo-

referenced social network of 1, 10, or 100-billion records; understanding and integrating human and computational

reasoning with large volumes of dynamic geo-spatial/temporal info

representation of geo-spatial/temporal context (a critical underpinning to solving most other questions);

moving visual-analytical power to everyday devices and tasks integrating missing bits into the above

Alan M. MacEachren, GeoVISTA Center, Dept. of Geography, Penn State – maceachren@psu.edu