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A Qualitative Study on the Exploration of Temporal Changes in Flow Maps with Animation and Small‐Multiples
Author(s) -
Boyandin Ilya,
Bertini Enrico,
Lalanne Denis
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
computer graphics forum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.578
H-Index - 120
eISSN - 1467-8659
pISSN - 0167-7055
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8659.2012.03093.x
Subject(s) - animation , multiple , computer science , human–computer interaction , qualitative analysis , flow (mathematics) , dynamics (music) , qualitative research , psychology , computer graphics (images) , mathematics , arithmetic , social science , geometry , sociology , pedagogy
We present a qualitative user study analyzing findings made while exploring changes over time in spatial interactions. We analyzed findings made by the study participants with flow maps, one of the most popular representations of spatial interactions, using animation and small‐multiples as two alternative ways of representing temporal changes. Our goal was not to measure the subjects’ performance with the two views, but to find out whether there are qualitative differences between the types of findings users make with these two representations. To achieve this goal we performed a deep analysis of the collected findings, the interaction logs, and the subjective feedback from the users. We observed that with animation the subjects tended to make more findings concerning geographically local events and changes between subsequent years. With small‐multiples more findings concerning longer time periods were made. Besides, our results suggest that switching from one view to the other might lead to an increase in the numbers of findings of specific types made by the subjects which can be beneficial for certain tasks.