A Comparative Experimental Study of Static and Interactive Maps in Visualizing Travel Experiences Using Public Transportation

Abstract

Data visualization is a necessary approach to enhance human understanding in visual representation from a collected dataset. However, when working with complex spatiotemporal datasets, circle maps or dot visualizations lead to a cluttered appearance. This study proposes a hexagonal interactive map as a solution to avoid overloaded visualization. The interactive map in this study contains three main features: filter, histogram, and brushing extension. To evaluate the interactive map, this study also included the static map as a comparison. The two main variables in this study are accuracy and user experience. The interactive map was developed with D3 libraries and a React application, whilst the static map was created with QGIS software. The dataset from a previous study regarding travel experience with public transportation was used in the map. This study employed a within-participant experimental design. There were 14 participants in total with varying educational backgrounds, genders, ages, and nationalities. The experiment was fully online, and each participant examined both the map and filled in the questionnaires related to the information on the map to measure accuracy, and also their experience when working with both maps. As a result, the interactive map had slightly less score in accuracy, even though outperformed in user experience score compared to static map. The static map can perform better in the browser without rendering time; however, this map was lack of interaction and the ability to explore the data in more detail. In contrast, even though the interactive map needed a longer time to load the interface, the majority of the participants preferred this map. This was due to the ability of the interactive map to present the visualization with varying combinations of parameters, either in fragments or as a complete whole.