From Data-Centered to Activity-Centered Geospatial Visualizations

As geospatial visualizations grow in popularity, their role in human activities is also evolving. While maps have been used to support higher-level cognitive activities such as decision-making, sense making, and knowledge discovery, traditionally their use in such activities has been partial. Nowadays they are being used at various stages of such activities. This trend is simultaneously being accompanied with another shift: a movement from the design and use of data-centered geospatial visualizations to activity-centered visualizations. Data-centered visualizations are primarily focused on representation of data from data layers; activity-centered visualizations, not only represent the data layers, but also focus on users’ needs and real-world activities—such as storytelling and comparing data layers with other information. Examples of this shift are being seen in some mashup techniques that deviate from standard data-driven visualization designs. Beyond the discussion of the needed shift, this chapter presents ideas for designing human-activity-centered geospatial visualizations.