Call for Papers

Topic
Geographic information is nowadays ubiquitously available: Internet, car navigation systems, and various mobile devices have access to geographic data. The visualization of and the interaction with this data effects the cognitive processing of the information. It has been shown that turn-by-turn instructions turn off the brains of users, prevent them from learning the environment, and can be the cause of bizarre accidents. Straightforward map visualizations and awkward interaction, on the other hand, may not help and often lead to corrupted knowledge acquisition and misinterpretation of the surrounding environment.

It is plausible to assume that when everyday access to and usage of spatial information (e.g. wayfinding, searching, locating) finally migrates to mobile devices, people will eventually never access survey representations of their environment on large scale displays such as maps or large screens.

However, it is representations, which communicate configurational and contextual information of an environment, that most easily allow for the establishment of correct and coherent mental representations beyond sequences of turns or entities of vista spaces. Due to the inherent richness, large-scale geographic information is not suitable for being displayed on the small screens of mobile devices.

If we want to avoid life-long dependency on navigation devices and foster adequate knowledge acquisition, we will have to develop new and task specific visualizations and corresponding interaction primitives. They will allow the efficient communication and manipulation of complex spatial knowledge on multiple levels of granularity.

The development of visualizations of and interaction with geographic information, especially with respect to communicating complex configurations and to foster spatial knowledge acquisition is still rather unexplored. Coupled with task specific interaction, that efficiently shortcuts the inherent queries, we can expect the development of adequate representations and interaction primitives: adequate for small displays, adequate to understand spatial information, and adequate in retrieving answers for spatial queries.


Topics focus on but are not limited to:

•	Novel visualization algorithms for geographic information
•	Novel task specific interaction primitives or query summaries
•	Ingredients to create spatial awareness
•	Small display cartography
•	Large maps versus small multiples?
•	How is map information integrated across different levels of granularity/scales?
•	Map gestures and other summary graphics
•	Ontology guided map schematization
•	Social aspects of spatial awareness
•	YAH maps in the light of new information technology
•	The influence of visual clutter; why presenting more information does not mean a better understanding of places
•	Advising schematization algorithms for small scale displays
•	Individual differences and familiarity
•	Measures and empirical results for spatial awareness and interaction usability