| dc.description.abstract | The aim of the present research is to investigate the effective ways to visualize information, especially in mobility information, for specific use and user groups. It focuses on the effectiveness of information visualization in two principles: accuracy and efficiency. Currently, our world is flooded with huge numbers of data which we believe contain important information that can be lead to knowledge. A successful method to understand and present the stories behind the data is by using visualization (Few, 2013). Ensuring the effectiveness of a visualization is divided into two principles: accuracy and efficiency becomes increasingly important as the use of visualizations continues to rise (Zhu, 2007). Nowadays, one of the challenges for business users like Mezuro is communicating information, especially in mobility information, as effective as possible through visualization. Mobility information can be used to answer questions about human location and movement (e.g. Where are people going? Where so people spend their time?). While other information only show general patterns of human settlement and migration (Palmer et al., 2013), mobility information also can be used to show people’s mobility patterns. In this research we combine qualitative and quantitative studies.
This study has identified that the most effective visualization methods to present mobility information depend on the type of tasks and questions (comparison tasks, relation seeking tasks or lookup tasks) that will be answered. A combination of a bar chart and a table could be considered to be used in comparison tasks. In relation seeking tasks, a map can be used to enhance the efficiency and the accuracy when the information contains geographical areas or locations. In lookup tasks, it could be considered to use either a combination of a bar chart and a table or a map and a table. Subsequently, there are also visualization design elements that need to be considered like color, highlight, label, legend, layout, and explanation of information. Furthermore, this research shows that to achieve an optimal design, the design process should be structured as follows: determine user requirements, look at the type of question or task from the customers and select a visualization method that can be used in a certain task, test the effectiveness of a visualization during the development phase, and evaluation is very useful for understanding how the product was used in the context. | |
