interactive design techniques

CV-13 - User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design

Advances in personal computing and information technologies have fundamentally transformed how maps are produced and consumed, as many maps today are highly interactive and delivered online or through mobile devices. Accordingly, we need to consider interaction as a fundamental complement to representation in cartography and visualization. UI (user interface) / UX (user experience) describes a set of concepts, guidelines, and workflows for critically thinking about the design and use of an interactive product, map or otherwise. This entry introduces core concepts from UI/UX design important to cartography and visualization, focusing on issues related to visual design. First, a fundamental distinction is made between the use of an interface as a tool and the broader experience of an interaction, a distinction that separates UI design and UX design. Norman’s stages of interaction framework then is summarized as a guiding model for understanding the user experience with interactive maps, noting how different UX design solutions can be applied to breakdowns at different stages of the interaction. Finally, three dimensions of UI design are described: the fundamental interaction operators that form the basic building blocks of an interface, interface styles that implement these operator primitives, and recommendations for visual design of an interface.

CV-15 - Web Mapping

As internet use has grown, many paper maps have been scanned and published online, and new maps have increasingly been designed for viewing in a web browser or mobile app. Web maps may be static or dynamic, and dynamic maps may either be animated or interactive. Tiled web maps are interactive maps that use tiled images to allow for fast data loading and smooth interaction, while vector web maps support rendering a wide variety of map designs on the client. Web maps follow a client-server architecture, with specialized map servers sometimes used to publish data and maps as geospatial web services. Web maps are composed of data from a database or file on the server, style information rendered on either server or client, and optionally animation or interaction instructions executed on the client. Several graphic web platforms provide user-friendly web mapping solutions, while greater customization is possible through the user of commercial or open source web mapping APIs. When designing web maps, cartographers should consider the map’s purpose on a continuum from exploratory and highly interactive to thematic and less interactive or static, the constraints of desktop and/or mobile web contexts, and accessibility for disabled, elderly, and poorly connected users.

CV-19 - Big Data Visualization
  • Explain how the concept “digital cartographic models” unifies a number of principles for computer cartography
  • Identify areas in cartography and visualization that have, and those that have not, advanced because of computational approaches
  • Explain how the rise of interoperability and open standards has affected the production of cartographic representations and visualizations
  • Explain how optimization techniques are improving the automated design of maps
  • Describe the structure and function of geographic names databases (i.e., gazetteer) for use in mapping
  • Differentiate between GIS and graphics software tools for mapping and those for visualization purposes
CV-16 - Virtual and immersive environments
  • Discuss the nature and use of virtual environments, such as Google Earth
  • Explain how various data formats and software and hardware environments support immersive visualization
  • Compare and contrast the relative advantages of different immersive display systems used for cartographic visualization (e.g., CAVEs, GeoWalls)
  • Evaluate the extent to which a GeoWall or CAVE does or does not enhance understanding of spatial data
  • Explain how the virtual and immersive environments become increasingly more complex as we move from the relatively non-immersive VRML desktop environment to a stereoscopic display (e.g., a GeoWall) to a more fully immersive CAVE
CV-13 - User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design

Advances in personal computing and information technologies have fundamentally transformed how maps are produced and consumed, as many maps today are highly interactive and delivered online or through mobile devices. Accordingly, we need to consider interaction as a fundamental complement to representation in cartography and visualization. UI (user interface) / UX (user experience) describes a set of concepts, guidelines, and workflows for critically thinking about the design and use of an interactive product, map or otherwise. This entry introduces core concepts from UI/UX design important to cartography and visualization, focusing on issues related to visual design. First, a fundamental distinction is made between the use of an interface as a tool and the broader experience of an interaction, a distinction that separates UI design and UX design. Norman’s stages of interaction framework then is summarized as a guiding model for understanding the user experience with interactive maps, noting how different UX design solutions can be applied to breakdowns at different stages of the interaction. Finally, three dimensions of UI design are described: the fundamental interaction operators that form the basic building blocks of an interface, interface styles that implement these operator primitives, and recommendations for visual design of an interface.

CV-19 - Big Data Visualization
  • Explain how the concept “digital cartographic models” unifies a number of principles for computer cartography
  • Identify areas in cartography and visualization that have, and those that have not, advanced because of computational approaches
  • Explain how the rise of interoperability and open standards has affected the production of cartographic representations and visualizations
  • Explain how optimization techniques are improving the automated design of maps
  • Describe the structure and function of geographic names databases (i.e., gazetteer) for use in mapping
  • Differentiate between GIS and graphics software tools for mapping and those for visualization purposes
CV-16 - Virtual and immersive environments
  • Discuss the nature and use of virtual environments, such as Google Earth
  • Explain how various data formats and software and hardware environments support immersive visualization
  • Compare and contrast the relative advantages of different immersive display systems used for cartographic visualization (e.g., CAVEs, GeoWalls)
  • Evaluate the extent to which a GeoWall or CAVE does or does not enhance understanding of spatial data
  • Explain how the virtual and immersive environments become increasingly more complex as we move from the relatively non-immersive VRML desktop environment to a stereoscopic display (e.g., a GeoWall) to a more fully immersive CAVE
CV-13 - User Interface and User Experience (UI/UX) Design

Advances in personal computing and information technologies have fundamentally transformed how maps are produced and consumed, as many maps today are highly interactive and delivered online or through mobile devices. Accordingly, we need to consider interaction as a fundamental complement to representation in cartography and visualization. UI (user interface) / UX (user experience) describes a set of concepts, guidelines, and workflows for critically thinking about the design and use of an interactive product, map or otherwise. This entry introduces core concepts from UI/UX design important to cartography and visualization, focusing on issues related to visual design. First, a fundamental distinction is made between the use of an interface as a tool and the broader experience of an interaction, a distinction that separates UI design and UX design. Norman’s stages of interaction framework then is summarized as a guiding model for understanding the user experience with interactive maps, noting how different UX design solutions can be applied to breakdowns at different stages of the interaction. Finally, three dimensions of UI design are described: the fundamental interaction operators that form the basic building blocks of an interface, interface styles that implement these operator primitives, and recommendations for visual design of an interface.

CV-19 - Big Data Visualization
  • Explain how the concept “digital cartographic models” unifies a number of principles for computer cartography
  • Identify areas in cartography and visualization that have, and those that have not, advanced because of computational approaches
  • Explain how the rise of interoperability and open standards has affected the production of cartographic representations and visualizations
  • Explain how optimization techniques are improving the automated design of maps
  • Describe the structure and function of geographic names databases (i.e., gazetteer) for use in mapping
  • Differentiate between GIS and graphics software tools for mapping and those for visualization purposes
CV-16 - Virtual and immersive environments
  • Discuss the nature and use of virtual environments, such as Google Earth
  • Explain how various data formats and software and hardware environments support immersive visualization
  • Compare and contrast the relative advantages of different immersive display systems used for cartographic visualization (e.g., CAVEs, GeoWalls)
  • Evaluate the extent to which a GeoWall or CAVE does or does not enhance understanding of spatial data
  • Explain how the virtual and immersive environments become increasingly more complex as we move from the relatively non-immersive VRML desktop environment to a stereoscopic display (e.g., a GeoWall) to a more fully immersive CAVE

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