Defining visualization operations for temporal cartographic animation design

Abstract

Cartographic animation has emerged as a potentially effective visualization technique that has an intuitive power in representing dynamic geographical phenomena through its ability to show interrelations amongst geospatial data’s components, location, attribute and time. Whereas cartographic animation has prominently featured in communicating geospatial information, their use as tools for visual exploration has been hampered by lack of the necessary functionality that is capable of allowing users to interact with the dynamic display. In this paper, we outline an approach that defines visualizations operations or basic visual actions that implement a viewer’s task of exploration and characterization of geospatial structures in data or phenomena. The defined operations go along to reinforcing the quest in enabling users to perceive relationships and be able to manipulate geospatial data using more efficient visual tools while keeping low on cognitive demands.