Measuring the Effectiveness of Static Maps to Communicate Changes Over Time

Both in digital and print media, it is common to use static maps to show the evolution of values in various regions over time. The ability to communicate local or global trends, while reducing the cognitive load on readers, is of vital importance for an audience that is not always well versed in map interpretation. This study aims to measure the efficiency of four static maps (choropleth, tile grid map and their banded versions) to test their usefulness in presenting changes over time from a user experience perspective. We first evaluate the effectiveness of these map types by quantitative performance analysis (time and success rates). In a second phase, we gather qualitative data to detect which type of map favors decision-making. On a quantitative level, our results show that certain types of maps work better to show global trends, while other types are more useful when analyzing regional trends or detecting the regions that fit a specific pattern. On a qualitative level, those representations which are already familiar to the user are often better valued despite having lower measured success rates.