ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the suitability of different cartographic design variants for visually communicating recommended routes. We performed a user study, investigating the potential of six different design variants (color hue, distortion, length distortion, size, spacing, and symbols) for influencing route choice using cartographic visualization methods while recommending a longer, but less congested route. The visualizations for all design variants have been prepared in three different levels of intensity of modification (weak, medium, and strong). Although the input data (traffic density) is the same for all representation methods, variations are each visualized using different cartographic design principles. Our results showed that in general, for the majority of routing scenarios, the participants’ route choice has been significantly influenced toward choosing the recommended route – indicating that the modification of route visualizations does actually lead to a different route choice behavior. Results further revealed that for most variants, willingness to choose the recommended route increases with higher intensity of modification. While some of the design variants like symbols or length distortion have been found effective for recommending routes at all levels of intensity, others like size and spacing have not been found suitable. A comparison between route choices and estimated route characteristics suggested a close relationship between willingness to choose the recommended route and the characteristics participants associate with the representation. In particular, route visualizations that create an impression of faster, more convenient, or more fluent travel experience are more likely to influence route choice behavior.

摘要

本文探讨了不同的制图设计变体在视觉上传达推荐路线的适用性。我们进行了一项用户研究，调查了六个不同设计变体（色相，失真，长度失真，大小，间距和符号）对使用制图可视化方法影响路线选择的潜力，同时建议了一条较长但拥塞较少的路线。所有设计变体的可视化图均以三种不同的修改强度级别（弱，中和强）进行了准备。）。尽管所有表示方法的输入数据（流量密度）都相同，但是每种变化都使用不同的制图设计原理进行可视化。我们的结果表明，一般而言，对于大多数路由方案而言，参与者的路由选择已对选择推荐的路由产生了显着影响-表明路由可视化的修改确实导致了不同的路由选择行为。结果进一步表明，对于大多数变体，选择推荐途径的意愿随着修饰强度的增加而增加。而某些设计变体例如符号或长度变形已发现可以有效推荐所有强度级别的路线，但尚未发现其他适合的路线，例如尺寸和间距。路线选择与估算路线特征之间的比较表明，选择推荐路线的意愿与参与者与代表相关联的特征之间有着密切的关系。特别是，路线图可视化会带来更快，更方便或更流畅的旅行体验，从而更有可能影响路线选择行为。