Spatial Data Visualization on Mobile Interface - A Usability Study

The widespread use of mobile devices in basic map navigation tasks has recently attracted researchers on usability problems arising from the reduced visualization area and the limited interaction modes allowed by small screens. In this paper we analyze the most common approaches suggested in the literature and present the results of a usability study carried out on one of them, an interactive technique, named FRAMY, which was conceived to cover a wider range of spatial data visualization tasks, possibly involving different geographic layers. A comparative usability study has been carried out on Framy and a traditional map application in order to evaluate the inoact of the novel approach on usability, in terms of efficiency and efficacy