Content zooming and information exploration for web and mobile maps. Adaptation of real-time map generalisation to the information seeking strategies of web and mobile users

Abstract

In the context of the development of web and mobile map applications with capabilities for map generalisation and abstraction, we propose a methodology for spatial information exploration that uses a technique that we term content zooming to change the degree of abstraction of map content independently of the map scale. Content zooming allows overriding the effects of ‘standard’ map generalisation, focusing on optimised content representation to aid the information seeking task of a mobile user. It is thus complementary to map generalisation. The paper defines content zooming operations and proposes technical solutions for each of these, illustrating them with examples from a research prototype.