New Methods for Representing and Interacting with Qualitative Geographic Information
Abstract
Our aim for this component of research was to evaluate the prototype SensePlace2 environment to gauge its support for key tasks related to spatio-temporal analysis of qualitative data derived from social media sources (with the focus on Twitter). Our preliminary findings reveal that participants view SensePlace2 as having the capability to integrate and analyze geospatial dimensions of social media, but that the execution of the interface has many limitations related to ease of use and support for efficient analysis. Participants proposed many additional features they felt would improve utility and a range of interface adjustments they felt would improve usability. Qualitative feedback from our tasks shows that users were able to generate good answers to our task prompts in most instances. However, users frequently mention that their answers were difficult to generate and that they were uncertain about the quality of those answers. This further supports the overall finding that they key mechanisms may exist to support solid analysis, but that the means for interacting with these mechanisms require significant further refinement. Results from this evaluation will be applied to specific interface improvements and the further development of refined analytical methods.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 31, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA580813
Entities
People
- Alan M. Maceachren
- Alexander Savelyev
- Anthony C. Robinson
- Scott Pezanowski
Organizations
- Pennsylvania State University