gilbert@cs.glasgow.ac.uk (Gilbert Cockton) (05/02/88)
In article <10712@sunybcs.UUCP> dmark@sunybcs.UUCP (David Mark) writes: >It is my opinion that the content and components of maps in a geographic >information systems (GIS) application vary so much that we cannot have >"our layouts" to be evaluated by expert designers. Does anyone know of work >which confirms or contradicts this, or knowledge of a graphics domain >as complicated and variable as map production that has been 'solved' in a >design sense? There will never be a final 'solution' to many graphic design problems, but as it is graphic designers who: a) work with these problems all day b) largely define (versions of) what aesthetics IS in the popular consciousness then I'm sure that good graphic designer's could improve the subjective response to some layouts. As far as cartography is concerned, the British Ordnance survey redesigned their 1:50000 maps over 10 years ago and I'm sure that there will be publications about this revision process and the principles involved. Experienced map-users, as would be expected, intensely disliked the changes to their user interfaces! I was a teenager at the time, adjusted fairly quickly and now find it difficult to navigate with the old maps. I'd say the U.K. O.S. had am improved 'solution' here. For other forms of information, there is a substantial psychological literature on information presentation. The results are piecemeal, but they could be integrated into an interactive design assistant (which some might even call an expert system!). P.S. This is probably no longer a comp.ai discussion (unlike free-will :-)) Follow-ups to comp.cog-eng?