Filming the Historical Geography: Story from the Realm of Maps in Regensburg

An Empirical Study on the Effects of Temporal Trends in Spatial Patterns on Animated Choropleth Maps

Animated cartographic visualization incorporates the concept of geomedia presented in this Special Issue. The presented study aims to examine the effectiveness of spatial pattern and temporal trend recognition on animated choropleth maps. In a controlled laboratory experiment with participants and eye tracking, fifteen animated maps were used to show a different spatial patterns and temporal trends. The participants’ task was to correctly detect the patterns and trends on a choropleth map. The study results show that effective spatial pattern and temporal trend recognition on a choropleth map is related to participants’ visual behavior. Visual attention clustered in the central part of the choropleth map supports effective spatio-temporal relationship recognition. The larger the area covered by the fixation cluster, the higher the probability of correct temporal trend and spatial pattern recognition. However, animated choropleth maps are more suitable for presenting temporal trends than spatial patterns. Understanding the difficulty in the correct recognition of spatio-temporal relationships might be a reason for implementing techniques that support effective visual searches such as highlighting, cartographic redundancy, or interactive tools. For end-users, the presented study reveals the necessity of the application of a specific visual strategy. Focusing on the central part of the map is the most effective strategy for the recognition of spatio-temporal relationships.

Interpretation of Map Symbols in the Context of Gamers’ Age and Experience

In this article researchers examined the differences that may characterise selected groups of gamers with regard to age and time spent on playing a survival game, Valheim, confronted with their interpretation of map symbols used in the game. The Valheim video game, which was released in early 2021, is a survival game set in a gameplay world inspired by Norse mythology. The authors of the article noted that the age factor and gaming experience may have different results in terms of the interpretation of cartographic products. The obtained data came from an online questionnaire. In the statistical analysis the authors employed the Pearson’s chi-squared test and the Benjamini–Hochberg procedure to find statistically significant differences between selected groups of respondents and their subjective interpretation of map symbols. Statistical analysis showed several differences and interesting relationships in the interpretation of symbols in relation to the age of the players and in the interpretation of symbols in relation to the time spent in the game. For future research, it is worth continuing towards researching new video games with existing cartographic products in order to investigate how games and players influence the culture in which they participate.