Browsing by Subject "Web mapping"

Cartographic interaction, the dialogue between a human and a map, is a process enabling indispensable ways of reasoning with spatial information. Interactive maps are digital applications, increasingly often made with web technologies. Studying and crafting cartographic interaction calls for user-inclusive studies designed around interactive map use, also necessitating the assessment of the rapidly evolving technologies enabling interactive maps. This study combines the technology- and user-centric aspects of cartographic interaction. I ask what the performance bottlenecks of a web map application are, and how different web mapping libraries compare as a platform for real-time cartographic interaction. I also ask how users interact with a highly interactive map interface, and whether cartographic interaction changes the way they perceive the mapped phenomenon. Developing a web map application, a map interface to a massive dataset on spatial accessibility (the Helsinki region Travel Time Matrix), is central to this study. I answer my technology-centric questions by assessing the technological aspects of interactive maps through the development process. To answer my user-centric questions, I carry out a user survey (n=31) by combining the web map application with an online questionnaire. My results show that the geometrical complexity of data, i.e. the number and detail of geometries to render, was the main factor limiting map responsiveness. Notable differences between web mapping libraries existed in the context of dynamic real-time interaction. Survey participants preferred to use the most dynamic mode of map interaction, and perceived the mapped phenomenon differently depending on how they interacted with the map. These results illustrate the dependence between map interface capabilities and technological design choices such as data simplification and software selection. The results also support the wider call for more dynamic map interfaces, indicating that real-time cartographic interaction can be a functional approach to exploring complex data. As a whole, the results highlight the need for the ongoing study of both mapping technologies and map use in order to discover and utilize the potential of cartographic interaction.