ICC 2015 Pre-Conference Workshop:
Envisioning the Future of Cartographic Research
August 21, 2015 / Paraná Federal University (UFPR)/ Curitiba, Brazil
Organized by:
ICA Commission on Cognitive Visualization
ICA Commission on Geovisualization
ICA Commission on Use and User Issues
ICA Commission on Map Design
Workshop logistics and registrations are available here and workshop agenda is available here.
The last major effort at setting a cross-cutting research agenda on interactive cartography and geovisualization was published in 2001. Since that time, there have been many changes in our field, including the establishment of two new ICA Commissions in related areas. New sources of data have appeared (among others, those that we call ‘big data’), new technologies for producing maps and other related information graphics have been developed (e.g., the plethora of web mapping libraries), and new methods for studying map use have been developed or become more accessible to researchers (e.g., fMRI, eye tracking, etc). At the same time, we have seen radical changes in the ways that people access, interact with, and create maps. Yet, few design recommendations, best practices, and classroom curricula exist that address the shifting design space of interactive cartography.
As a result, the leadership of our respective ICA commissions believes that it is time to consider the cartographic research landscape as a whole, along with its relationships to cognate fields (e.g., computer science, information visualization, user experience research, cognitive science & psychology), in order to identify areas of research that could benefit from our collective efforts.
Therefore, we are pleased to announce a workshop in Curitiba, preceding the 2015 ICC conference in Rio, which will take the first steps towards producing a research agenda that reflects current challenges and define how, as a group, we could tackle them.
As a first step in that process, we invite members of our three commissions, including students, to describe what they believe are the ‘big problems’ in cartography that could benefit from cooperative work between our respective commissions. We also welcome participation at this stage from commission members who will be unable to attend the workshop.
As a second step, the commissions’ leadership will examine these proposals and choose a number of research challenges that will be the focus of the 2015 workshop. These research challenges will be circulated to all commission members, and we then will invite commission members to join small groups from a balanced mixture of commissions to further develop cross-cutting research directions around the proposals.
The identified research challenges for discussion at the workshop are:
1. What is the usability of user research techniques and methods (longstanding and emerging) in the context of cartographic user research questions?
2. How can we best develop a systematic understanding of the intersection between human abilities (perceptual/cognitive/affective), cartographic design decisions (graphic & interaction), and map use context? Can we predict what will work?
3. Which cartographic designs are most suitable to provide an overview (summary) and support user interactions with large, heterogeneous, spatio-temporal data-sets?
4. How does the mobile platform require us to revise or rethink time-tested tenets of cartographic design? How should we design our interactive maps to respond across multiple devices, both mobile and non-mobile? Are mobile and desktop platforms merged or distinct?
Next, we will solicit short white papers (2 pages) on these research challenges, to be circulated before the workshop to help drive discussions. The workshop will be directed towards making progress on a new research agenda for interactive cartography and geovisualization. We also welcome participation in the workshop by those who would rather not submit a white paper.
Important Dates and Submission Details:
15 January 2015, deadline for one paragraph proposals for why a topic constitutes a ‘big problem’ in cartography. Please submit your one-paragraph proposal here.1 February 2015, publication on commission webpages of selected ‘big problem’ topics for pre-ICC workshop.8 March 2015, your selection of proposed cartographic research topics. Pease rate topics here (click on the View Ideas button to see the questions and to rate each proposal)April 15 2015, deadline for expression of interest in writing a white paper for a particular research challenge, as listed above. Please submit your expression of interest to Rob Roth at: reroth@wisc.edu.-
30 April 2015, notification of group membership and draft workshop agenda. 15 June 2015, deadline for 2 page white papers on ‘research challenges’ so that workshop participants can review them before the workshop. Please submit your 2-page white paper in CHI Archive Format to Amy Griffin at: a.griffin@adfa.edu.au.4 August 2015, submitted 2-page white papers posted.- NEW: Workshop Agenda updated, available here.
Workshop : Designing and Conducting User Studies
In addition to the workshop, our Commissions will also be organizing a training day for students and others who want to learn about doing empirical studies of geovisualization techniques and tools. This will be held in Curitiba at the same venue on 20 August, the day before the research agenda workshop. Further details about the training day will be available soon on the Commission websites. Please find details of this workshop here.
Workshop Location
Curitiba is about an hour flight south of Rio de Janeiro, with cheap and regular flights available from Rio (ranging from approx. $100-200 USD, round trip, depending on the airline). Curitiba is a city best known for its emphasis on urban planning, implementing the world’s first bus rapid transit system in 1974, and having been awarded the Global Sustainable City Award in 2010. It also hosts the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, as well as a number of his buildings.
White Papers
Research Methods in Cartography and Geovisualization |
Designing across Human Abilities |
Representing & Interacting |
1. What is the usability of user research techniques and methods (longstanding and emerging) in the context of cartographic user research questions? |
2. How can we best develop a systematic understanding of the intersection between human abilities, cartographic design decisions, and map use context? Can we predict what will work? |
3. Which cartographic designs are most suitable to provide an overview (summary) and support user interactions with large, heterogeneous, spatio-temporal data-sets? |
Arzu Coltekin |
Sara Fabrikant: |
Aileen Buckley |
Corné van Elzakker |
Haosheng Huang: |
Bin Jiang |
Amy Griffin |
Claudia Sluter: |
Menno-Jan Kraak |
Kristien Ooms |
Beate Weninger |
Tony Moore |
Robert Roth |
Travis White |
Anthony Robinson http://personal.crocodoc.com/LqXnNub |
Carolyn Fish |
