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EXAMENSARBETE INOM TEKNIK, GRUNDNIVÅ, 15 HP STOCKHOLM, SVERIGE 2017

MAP DESIGN A development of background visualisation in Digpro dpPower application

FREDRIK AHNLÉN

KTH SKOLAN FÖR ARKITEKTUR OCH SAMHÄLLSBYGGNAD Acknowledgments

Annmari Skrifvare, Digpro AB, co-supervisor. For setting up test environment, providing feed- back and support throughout the thesis work.

Jesper Svedberg, Digpro AB, senior-supervisor. For providing feedback both in the start up process of the thesis work as well as the evaluation part.

Milan Horemuz, KTH and Geoinformatics, co-supervisor. For assisting in the structur- ing of the thesis work as well as providing feedback and support.

Anna Jenssen, KTH Geodesy and Geoinformatics, examiner.

Finally big thanks to Anders Nerman, Digpro AB, for explaining the fundamentals of cus- tomer usage of dpPower and Jeanette Stenberg, Kraftringen, Gunilla Pettersson, Eon Energi, Karin Backström, Borlänge Energi, Lars Boström, Torbjörn Persson and Thomas Björn- hager, Smedjebacken Energi Nät AB, for providing user feedback via interviews and survey evaluation.

i Abstract

What is good map design and how should information best be visualised for a human reader? This is a general question relevant for all types of design and especially for digital and various Geographic Information Systems (GIS), due to the rapid development of our digital world. This general question is answered in this thesis by presenting a number of principles and tips for design of maps and specifically interactive digital visualisation systems, such as a GIS. Furthermore, this knowledge is applied to the application dpPower, by Digpro, which present the tools to help customers manage, visualise, design and perform calculations on their electrical networks. The visualisation and design of the network was analysed together with the usage of two common background maps, GSD-Fastighetskartan by Lantmäteriet and Primärkartan by the municipalities, whose default appearances are defined by Digpro. The aim was to answer whether there is a more suitable design of the background maps and network to better complement the usage of dpPower and if so, what is the better design? When designing interactive systems that will later have various end-users, a user-centred de- sign is important. Therefore, the initial step was to collect user inputs and feedback on the current design via customer interviews. This gave a set of user criteria for good map design of dpPower specifically. A study of existing relevant literature and previous work was also performed where several general key principles for good design could be identified. Finally, a comparison between the dpPower design and other existing map products, such as e.g. Google Maps and Eniro, was made where key similarities and dissimilarities were identified and discussed. These user criteria and design principles could be combined, both to present an answer to the general question “What is good design?” and to present a suggestion of new map appearance in dpPower. Key considerations in the new design suggestions were e.g. to have a toned down background map with all features in the same hue family. However, for GSD-Fastighetskartan the important convention of land classes, blue = water, green = vegetation & yellow = open land, should be kept. Colour combinations and contrast is the most important design element and since a design cannot be optimally adapted for all types of colour vision deficiencies, the suggestion is to separate the designs to specifically target user groups of different colour vision abilities. Important map information such as e.g. detailed road data should be kept while unnecessary features such as contour lines and polygon borderlines should be hidden. Text positions should also be considered. The results were evaluated both via a survey, distributed to users of dpPower, GIT-students and users with no previous experience of GIT or dpPower, and a seminar with employees at Digpro. The conclusions drawn from the evaluation was that the presented design suggestions and principles are good, but adjustments should be made. E.g. a use of yellow for low voltage cables, as suggested for Red-Green impaired, is perhaps not the best solution. The results present a good foundation for design of dpPower but more adjustments should be made based on the evaluation and then another evaluation can be performed. It would give an even better result.

ii Sammanfattning

Vad är bra design och hur ska egentligen information visualiseras på bästa sätt för en användare? Det är en generell frågeställning som är relevant för alla designformer och i synnerhet för design av digitala kartor och olika geografiska informationssystem (GIS), med tanke på den snabba dig- itala utvecklingen. Denna generella fråga besvaras i den här rapporten genom att presentera ett antal principer och tips för bra kartdesign och design av interaktiva digitala visualiseringssysem, så som ett GIS. Denna kunskap appliceras sedan på applikationen dpPower, skapad av Digpro, vilken presen- terar verktyg för underhåll, visualisering, design och beräkningar av kunders elnät. Analysen av nätets design gjordes tillsammans med användandet av två vanliga bakgrundskartor, Lanmäteri- ets GSD-Fastighetskartan och kommunernas Primärkartan, vars utseende i dpPower definierats av Digpro. Målsättningen var att svara på om det finns en mer passande design av bakgrundskartorna och nätet som underlättar användandet av dpPower och i så fall, vad är denna bättre design? När man designar ett interaktivt system för olika användartyper är det viktig med en använ- daranpassad designprocess. Därför var det första steget i analysen att samla in användarsynpunk- ter och feedback på nuvarande design från kunder genom intervjuer. Detta gav en uppsättning användarkriterier för bra kartdesign specifikt i dpPower. En studie av tillgänglig relevant litteratur genomfördes också där flera generella principer för bra design kunde noteras. Slutligen genomfördes en jämförelse mellan designen i dpPower och andra kartprodukter, som t.ex. Google Maps och Eniro där viktiga likheter och olikheter kunde identifieras och analyseras. De framtagna användarkriterierna och generella designprinciperna kunde sedan kombineras till att både ge svar på den generella frågan "Vad är bra design?" och till att presentera förslag på nytt utseende i dpPower. Viktiga faktorer i de nya designförslagen var t.ex. att ha en ned- tonad bakgrundskarta med alla objekt i samma typ av färgton. För GSD-Fastighetskartan däre- mot borde den viktiga konventionen om marktypers redovisning bevaras. Det vill säga att blått = vatten, grönt = vegetation och gult = öppen mark. Färgkombinationer och kontrast är de vikti- gaste designelementen och eftersom en design inte kan optimeras för användare med alla typer av färgblindhet är förslaget att separera designen i mallar optimerade för olika typer av färgseende. Viktig kartinformation som t.ex. detaljerad information kring vägar ska bevaras medan onödig information som t.ex. höjdkurvor och vissa polygongränslinjer kan döljas. Positioneringen av texter bör också ses över. Resultatet utvärderade både genom ett frågeformulär, som distribuerades till användare av dpPower, GIT-studenter och användare med ingen tidigare erfarenhet av GIT eller dpPower, samt genom ett seminarium med anställda på Digpro. Slutsatserna som drogs från utvärderingen var att de nya presenterade designförslagen och principerna är bra, men behöver fortsatt justering. T.ex. är användandet av gult för lågspän- ningsledningar, vilket föreslås för användare med Röd-Grön färgblindhet, troligen inte den bästa lösningen. Resultaten i denna rapport ger en bra grund för design av dpPower men fler justeringen borde göras baserat på utvärderingen vilka sedan kan utvärderas ytterligare en gång. Detta hade gett ett ändå bättre anpassat resultat.

iii Contents

1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background ...... 1 1.2 Problem Formulation ...... 4 1.3 Objectives ...... 4 1.4 Limitations & Delimitations ...... 4 1.5 Disposition ...... 4

2 Related Work 5 2.1 Human ...... 5 2.1.1 Human Perception ...... 5 2.1.2 Colour Vision and Colour Vision Deficiency ...... 6 2.2 Interactive Visualisation ...... 8 2.2.1 Visual Analytics ...... 8 2.2.2 User Interactions ...... 8 2.2.3 Visualisation Principles ...... 9 2.2.4 Visual Representations ...... 12 2.2.5 Visulisation Displays ...... 12 2.2.6 The Visual Information Seeking Mantra ...... 13 2.3 ...... 13 2.3.1 Cartography ...... 13 2.3.2 Digital Cartography ...... 13 2.3.3 Map Conventions ...... 14 2.3.4 Map Design ...... 16 2.3.5 Interactive Design ...... 23

3 Research Methodology 23 3.1 User Input ...... 23 3.1.1 Interviews ...... 23 3.1.2 Criteria ...... 25 3.2 Literature Study ...... 25 3.3 Map Comparisons ...... 25 3.4 Formulation of New Map Appearance ...... 25 3.5 Evaluation and Feedback ...... 25 3.5.1 Quantitative ...... 26 3.5.2 Qualitative ...... 26

4 Results 26 4.1 Map Comparisons ...... 26 4.2 Answer to Problem Formulation ...... 27 4.2.1 What is good design? ...... 27 4.2.2 New suggestion for map appaerance in dpPower ...... 34 4.3 Quantitative Feedback ...... 50 4.4 Qualitative Feedback ...... 57

iv 5 Discussion 58 5.1 General ...... 58 5.2 Related Work ...... 60 5.3 Interviews ...... 60 5.4 Map Comparisons ...... 60 5.5 Analyse in dpPower ...... 60 5.6 Evaluation ...... 62

6 Conclusions 63

7 Future Work 63

References 65

v List of Figures

1 Example of GSD-Fastighetskartan...... 2 2 Example of Primärkartan...... 2 3 Example of dpPower...... 3 4 Perceptual trick - figure-ground relationship...... 5 5 Most common Red-Green colour deficiencies...... 7 6 Similarity Principle. A dissimilar object is significantly different from the rest. . . 10 7 Closure principle. The eye fills in the missing lines to complete the shape. . . . . 10 8 Sky and Water, by MC Escher, uses the figure-ground relationship...... 11 9 Red = Danger, Amber = Caution, Green = Safe. Traffic lights use the convention of safety for colours...... 14 10 Elevation map using the altitude colour conventions...... 15 11 Temperature map with convention dark = more, light = less...... 15 12 Example of how simultaneuos contrast affect the visual significance...... 17 13 Badly considered line designs can hurt the eyes...... 18 14 Map with line pattern...... 18 15 Map with dot pattern...... 18 16 The complementary colours, oposit to eachother...... 19 17 How users with Red-Green deficiency (below) see normal colours (above). . . . . 20 18 How to vary point-, line- & area features...... 21 19 How to represent point features...... 22 20 How to represent line features...... 22 21 Old maps can contain lots of decorative symbols...... 28 22 Example of colour combinations to avoid for Red-Green impaired...... 31 23 How colour vision impaired experience the normal colours...... 31 24 How a spectral colour scheme can be modified for Red-Green impaired...... 32 25 Current Primärkartan background map design...... 35 26 New suggested Primärkartan background map design...... 36 27 Current network design...... 37 28 New suggested network design for Red-Green impaired...... 37 29 Current network design...... 37 30 New suggested network design for Red-Green impaired...... 37 31 Current design of Primärkartan and network, small scale...... 39 32 New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, small scale...... 39 33 New suggestion for normal vision, small scale...... 40 34 Current design of Primärkartan and network, large scale...... 40 35 New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, large scale...... 41 36 New suggestion for normal vision, large scale...... 41 37 Current design of GSD-Fastighetskartan and network, small scale...... 43 38 New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, small scale...... 43 39 New suggestion for normal vision, small scale...... 44 40 Current design of GSD-Fastighetskartan and network, large scale...... 44 41 New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, large scale...... 45 42 New suggestion for normal vision, large scale...... 45 43 Current design of GSD-Fastighetskartan and network, large scale...... 46

vi 44 New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, large scale...... 46 45 New suggestion for normal vision, large scale...... 47 46 Borderlines in current design...... 47 47 Borderlines in new suggestion...... 48 48 Current random positioning of texts...... 48 49 Example with structured text positioning...... 49 50 SurveyQ. 1: Who are you? - Respondents test group...... 50 51 SurveyQ. 2: Do you have any colour vision impairment? ...... 50 52 SurveyQ. 3: Choose which of the background maps below is less visually signif- icant. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion...... 51 53 SurveyQ. 4: Choose which of the networks below you prefer. - Choice of red/green or yellow/red network. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion. 52 54 SurveyQ. 5: Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best comple- mented by the background map. - Choice of network + Primärkartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2...... 53 55 SurveyQ. 6: Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best comple- mented by the background map. - Choice of network + Primärkartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2...... 53 56 SurveyQ. 7: Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best comple- mented by the background map. - Choice of network + GSD-Fastighetskartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New sugges- tion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2...... 54 57 SurveyQ. 8: Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best comple- mented by the background map. - Choice of network + GSD-Fastighetskartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New sugges- tion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2...... 55 58 SurveyQ. 9; Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best comple- mented by the background map. - Choice of network + GSD-Fastighetskartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New sugges- tion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2...... 55 59 SurveyQ. 10: Choose which of the maps below has the best polygon borderlines. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion...... 56 60 SurveyQ. 11; Choose what you think about using standards for text positioning for point objects such as e.g. Option 1 = Lower right side, if not suitable, use Option 2 = lower left side. etc...... 57

vii List of Tables

1 Interviewed customers ...... 24

viii Terms and Abbrevations

GSD: Geografiska Sverigedata, Swedish Geographic Data.

GIT: Geographic Information Technology.

GIS: Geographic .

KTH: Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Royal Institute of Technology.

ix 1 Introduction

What is the world? Most people agree upon our existent as being made up by the atoms and quarks creating matter as a physical quantity. But what would the world be if it lacked the di- mension of vision. Colour and light is actually just radiation of different wavelengths interpreted by our eyes. But how would we recognise light if there were no vision. One might say that to best describe and understand our world, visualisation and understanding of, primarily, the human interpretation of what we see is the most important. How would one best explain the rain- bow? How do you best analyse geographic information? How do you present enormous amounts of data, available in our modern digital societies, to another person so it is fully interpretable? The answer is by visualisation and primarily by visualisation on maps. But how should the maps be designed? What information should be shown to achieve max- imum legibility and still present a maximum amount of data? How should the information be presented? When it comes to visualisation of maps, what is actually good design? These are issues that must be considered in many applications regarding information presenta- tion. But design considerations should always be made to everything we create. Systems, objects, applications, games, maps etc. will all be used by different users and for different purposes, which the design should follow and adapt to. Visualisation is the key to understanding and we should apply the technologies and insights we know about it whenever we can. This thesis addresses the subject of visualisation of geographical data in a GIS and considers issues such as e.g. map design, interactive visualisation and human perception with the aim of presenting a new suggestion of map appearance for an application designed by the company Digpro.

1.1 Background Since this thesis is based on the subject of visualisation of geographic data, it seems obvious to first state a couple of related definitions. To analyse a system for geographical information, one needs to state the meaning of a GIS. If the geographic data in a GIS is to be presented on a map, one first needs to define what a map is. What is a GIS? A GIS is a computer-based tool for analysing, storing, manipulating and visualising geographic information on a map [1]. Data is not fully interpretable until one can spatially relate it to a geographic location and present this information on a digital or analogue map. Due to the on- going global digitalisation process of our societies, GIS is an increasingly important tool for various tasks and visualisations of spatial data. What is a map? According to the National Geographic Society [2], a map is a symbolic representation of selected characteristics of a place. The map shows objects of different size, shape and colour, on locations relating them geographically to each other by map distances and coordinates. Cartographers have been creating maps for thousands of years, visualising objects and characteristics of a region on elements such as e.g. cave walls, clay bricks, papyrus, paper etc. The fact that maps were invented that long ago and still play a key role in spatial applications, indicates the vast variety of map types and map usage. Below, two modern detailed maps are presented. GSD-Fastighetskartan Is the most detailed map provided by the Swedish mapping authority Lantmäteriet [3]. In english

1 it can be known as a Cadastral Map. It shows features such as e.g. properties and property boundaries, buildings, roads and various land covers, optimised for the scale interval 1:5000 – 1:20 000 and is available both in printed and digital form. See example in Figure 1 [4]. It is a high quality, precise map, available both as vector and raster data. It is a part of the swedish geographic database system GSD that provides fundamental spatial information over entire Sweden [5]. c Lantmäteriet

Figure 1: Example of GSD-Fastighetskartan.

Primärkartan Is a very detailed digital vector map designed by the municipalities to be used in urban areas [6]. See Figure 2 [7]. It is used as the base information for many applications and other maps, e.g. in detailed planning and decision-making. It contains high quality, updated information of e.g. buildings, contour lines, road edges, fences, trees etc. designed to be used in relatively large scales [8]. The map is also known as Baskartan or other names locally specified by the municipalities.

Figure 2: Example of Primärkartan.

Digpro Digpro is a company specialised in providing Geographic IT solutions, such as applications for electricity, telecom, district heating, gas and water networks [9]. Their software’s are designed to help customers manage, visualise, design and perform calculations on their networks, always

2 with the aid of detailed background information from digital maps. The application designed for management of large networks for electrical distribution is called dpPower [10]. The users network of electrical cables, transmitter stations, power switches etc. can be drawn and visualised in dpPower using certain colour schemes, object sizes and object designs defined by Digpro. In addition, the customers can use detailed background maps as complementary information, e.g. GSD-Fastighetskartan, or Primärkartan, described above. See Figure 3 [11] for an example with an aerial as background image to the network.

Figure 3: Example of dpPower.

The Digpro applications present the tools to visualise this background map data, in combina- tion with the network data. However, the appearance and visualisation of the background maps have never been thoroughly analysed as having the purpose of serving as background information for dpPower users. According to dpPower responsible at Digpro, Anders Nerman, the customers and users are also free to change the background map appearance as well as the visualisation of the network to better suit their specific applications. However, no feedback has ever been received from the users about their preferences or their opinions about the visualisation of background maps in dpPower.

3 1.2 Problem Formulation Thus, the problem formulation of this research is to answer the question: “Would another ap- pearance of the background maps GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan better complement the customer usage of dpPower?“ If the background map is to be a good complement to the usage of dpPower, the design must be analysed as a whole with the network and background information together. To answer this, the general question: “What is good map design?” must first be answered.

1.3 Objectives The objectives of this thesis are, firstly, to answer the questions stated in the section above. Sec- ondly, if there is a more suited appearance of the background maps for users of dpPower than what is originally installed on their computers, the objective is to present what this is.

1.4 Limitations & Delimitations Since Digpro presents GIT applications for numerous types of networks and the customers can use several data sources as background map information, a complete analyse of the background map visualisation for all kinds of background maps, networks and users would not be possible in the thesis time frame. Optimally the users would be involved in an iterative process of design and evaluation. But the time frame only allows one loop in this process, further described in section 2.2.2. Thus, this thesis has been limited to analyse the use of GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan in the dpPower application using e.g. user feedback from a selected subset of customers.

1.5 Disposition This thesis is structured to first present a series of related work in section 2 regarding topics related to human perception, interactive visualisation and cartography. In section 3, the thesis methodology is described in detail where the conducted steps of data collection via interviews, formulation of user criteria, literature study, map comparisons between dpPower and other map sources, formulation of new map appearances, evaluation and feedback are presented. Section 4 further presents the results of the thesis. Here, the related work from section 2, the user criteria and map comparisons formulated and described in section 3 is combined to present the answer to the problem formulation of “What is good design?”. This knowledge is then applied to dpPower and the use of the background maps Primärkartan and GSD-Fastighetskartan together with the electrical network. Here the current design problems are discussed and new suggestions for map appearance are presented. Section 4 also presents and analyses the results from the evaluation and feedback part. In section 5, the entire thesis work, including methodology and results, is discussed and con- clusions are drawn in section 6. Finally, recommendations for future work that remains to be done in this study area is pre- sented in section 7.

4 2 Related Work

A variety of researches related to this thesis problem have been made throughout the years. Below, a selection of work topics will be presented. First the science and understanding of the human perception and colour vision will be examined in section 2.1. This includes the functionality of the human colour vision and describes the different kinds of colour deficiencies. For a visualisation topic, these human abilities are critically important. Since maps are to be visualised and dpPower is a digital GIS on a computer, the important subject of Interactive Visualisation is described in section 2.2. This section describes e.g. the importance of user-centred designs and formulates visualisation and representation principles. In section 2.3 the Cartography field is examined, both analogously and digitally and a couple of tools for good map design, regarding e.g. existing conventions and user approaches are presented here.

2.1 Human Perception Since a map and digital information is created to be read by humans, specifically by the human eyes and , it is important to first analyse the subject of human perception.

2.1.1 Human Perception As stated by several researchers [12], [13], [14], in order to produce an effective visualisation, one must understand the human perception and cognitive capability. Otherwise the end result may not lead to an interpretable visualisation by the users. Shneiderman [13] states that humans have remarkable perceptual abilities. About one quar- ter of the brain is involved in visual processing which is more than any other sense. Users can scan, recognise and recall images and can detect changes in e.g. colour, shape, movement or tex- ture. Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] states that the human mind is exceptionally good at interpreting simplified visualised data representations, though it can be easily fooled by certain ambiguous representations, best proved by perceptual tricks. See example Figure 4 [15] below.

Figure 4: Perceptual trick - figure-ground relationship.

However, according to Shneiderman and Zudilova-Seinstra et al [13], [12], these abilities are greatly under-utilised in current designs. Even though the visualisation plays a key role, naturally it must be adapted for human eyes, which they claim is not completely the case in most of the current GIS and map designs.

5 2.1.2 Colour Vision and Colour Vision Deficiency One of the most important and well-known abilities of the human eye is the colour vision. Several researches have been examining the eyes and visual . Land [16] describes the remarkable ability of the eye to discover lightness values independent of flux and states that this ability is the basis on which the satisfactory description of colour vision can be built. Machado et al [17] describes the functionality of human colour vision as dependent on three kinds of retinal photoreceptors, called cones. The cones peak in the large, medium and short wavelength portions of the visible spectrum, that is the red, green and blue portion respectively. The three cones read the incoming light and send the information to the brain for interpretation. This means that the human colour vision is trichromatic, that is, there are three independent variables affecting the colour vision [18]. For normally functioning eyes, the cones can pass any combination of red, green and blue lights on to the brain giving us the vision of practically any kind of colour in the visible spectrum [19]. However, a deficiency on one or more of the cones, with a loss of light sensitive pigments, will create a colour deficiency for that person where he/she is unable to see one or more of the three primary colours. The American Optometric Association [19] states that the most common deficiency is the one called Red-Green which means that the person has troubles differing between the red and green colours. It is also dependent on the darkness where darker colours are even harder to differ. Red-Green deficiency can be divided in Deuteranopia and Protanopia, which is reduced sensitivity to green and red light respectively. See Figure 5 [20] for examples of how Red-Green impaired users see the normal colours.

6 Figure 5: Most common Red-Green colour deficiencies.

The second most common deficiency is Yellow-Blue, or Tritanopia, which is actually much more rare and also more severe since these persons usually have the Red-Green deficiency too. These deficiencies are all dichromatic, meaning they are the result of the loss of function of one cone, reducing the number of independent variables to two [18]. A further loss down to one single variable gives a monochromatic vision where the person can only see in one grey-scale. In fact, the missing colours are replaced by shades of grey or neutral colours for persons with colour deficiencies [19]. This means that most people are not completely colour blind, they just have a problem differing between colours, which can be more or less severe. Very few people are completely colour blind [18]. Colour deficiencies vary from person to person and also from males to females [21]. Accord- ing to Birch [22], about one in twelve men sees colour differently than the rest of the population and Red-Green colour deficiency is by far the most common with about 8% of the men and 0,4% of the women. Robinson [14] states that the choice of colours must be based on the characteristics of colour vision, for maps are to be read. The human eye reacts to colours in terms of their hue, e.g. blue or red, and each individual hue varies in terms of brightness or value and in the degree of intensity or saturation of the colour area. Since colours always appear in a surrounding, the surrounding areas will also affect the eyes interpretation of the colour. Robinson [14] further claims that the human eye is not particularly sensitive to detecting value

7 differences or hue changes. One can detect about eight different shades of grey between black and white, which means a cartographer or designer must be rather limited in this respect. When it comes to hues and hue changes, the eye is also most sensitive to red, then green, then blue, then purple, in that order. Another affecting factor is the relative luminosity, which is how much significant to the human eye a colour is in a map [14]. The different colour regions have different visible appearance just based on the relative luminosity between the colours. The relative luminosity is highest in the yellow-green region making these colours more visibly significant.

2.2 Interactive Visualisation The studies above describe how humans interact visibly with the surrounding world using the eyes. It does not however specifically describe the human interaction with computers and computer- based systems. For GIT and common modern visualisations, the digital world and its connection to humans must be explored. The field of interactive visualisation is the study on how people interact with computers to create visual representations of information and also how this process can be made more efficient [12]. Naturally, this is a relatively young research field with increasing importance along with the digitalisation of our societies.

2.2.1 Visual Analytics Visual analytics is also a relatively new term, used since 2005 with the publishing of the book "Illuminating The Path" by Thomas & Cook [23]. However, the ideas, researches and approaches regarding visual analytics was already being used [24]. The main idea is to develop knowledge, methods, technologies and practice that exploit and combine the strengths of human and electronic data processing. One can consider the information overload problem, which is the problem many system designers face today, with a tremendous amount of available data. What can or should be used and for what purpose? What to do with the rest? Visual analytics turns this problem into opportunities.

2.2.2 User Interactions Zudilova-Seinstra et al states that humans and computers are not cooperating well [12]. Their is full of misunderstandings, false interpretations and frustration. A thoroughly study of the user-computer interaction should therefore be applied to all digital designs. The term "Visualisation" has traditionally been described as a process of graphically displaying end results, indicating visualisation as the final step of some other process. According to Zudilova- Seinstra et al [12], visualisation should rather be described as the process during which users and computers become aware of the actual task and in which they reach a stage of agreement upon the objective of the interaction. Several researchers on the subjects of Interactive Visualisation claim the importance of user-centeredness in designing processes [12], [25]. It is the users that will use the system or map design, thus the design should be adapted for the users. However, Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] claims designers today do not fully think about who will be the user and for what exact purpose. This is rather critical since users can differ a lot in perceptual abilities, have different needs and have very different preferences. Factors such as gender, age, culture, education, cognitive and physical abilities are important. What is good visualisation for

8 one might be bad for another. In a user-centred design, the designer must answer questions such as:

• Who will be the users, what are their characteristics and what are their tasks?

• What are the objects and processes that need to be visualised?

• What kind of insight should the visualisation support?

Therefore, the users should be involved during the entire design process in a Low-Fidelity to High-Fidelity cycle of [12]:

• Step 1: Analysis of the users, their environments and tasks.

• Step 2: Design.

• Step 3: Evaluation.

These steps should be repeated over and over until a final design has been established, based on the user needs. Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] further describes that the data to be visualised by a system is stored in a database and transformed into an image based on a visualisation technique applied. Therefore, the design is not about what data is available and what data is not available. It is about what data is being shown and what is hidden. Adjustments can always be made depending on application. To be able to give the user the full experience and use of the visualised data, it is critical that the visualisation is interactive [12]. The user should be able to move around on the screen and zoom in and out on locations of his or hers choice, The user should also be able to adjust parameters such as e.g. shape, colour, texture, brightness, blur, transparency, boundaries, sample rate etc.

2.2.3 Visualisation Principles High image quality is of help to sell a concept of a visualised image and can give it a good visual look, however, high quality must not be a good thing [12]. More important is to apply appropriate visualisation techniques with the right degree of image quality for a specific task. There are a number of visualisation techniques and principles formulated by different researchers. Zudilova- Seinstra et al [12] describes e.g. the Gestalt Principles, which are principles that make humans organise visual elements into groups or unified wholes when applied. They can be used to increase an object or regions visual significance in a map or image. The Gestalt Principles are:

• Similarity: If similar objects are presented together, they will be grouped together visually [26].

9 Figure 6: Similarity Principle. A dissimilar object is significantly different from the rest.

• Symmetry: A stimuli will occur incomplete if an object is not balanced or symmetrical.

• Common fate: Elements that are moving in the same direction tend to be grouped together.

• Familiarity: Elements are more likely to form groups if the groups appear meaningful or familiar.

• Continuation: Elements are grouped together when lines connect them.

• Proximity: Objects near each other are grouped together.

• Closure: The tendency to unite contours that are very close to each other [27].

Figure 7: Closure principle. The eye fills in the missing lines to complete the shape.

In addition, the following principles are mentioned:

• Pragnanz (good form): The resulting structure should be as simple as possible.

• Figure & Ground (Object & Background): Balancing the figure-ground relationship can make the perceived image clearer [28].

10 Figure 8: Sky and Water, by MC Escher, uses the figure-ground relationship.

Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] also describes a set of organising principles, where connectedness is presented as the most fundamental and symmetry as second most important [12]. The other principles for organising objects are colour, size, shape, proximity and closure. Tufte [29] is one of the main researchers within graphic displays. He primarily considers the visual appearance of graphs. He states that if a design is too cluttered, the design should be changed, the data should not be removed. He also uses the Data-Ink-Ratio, which indicates how much of the ink on a graph or map that represents data. Good graphical representations maximise Data-Ink and reduce as much Non-Data-Ink as possible. He mentions several other principles for showing data, regarding e.g. Data-Ink, data density, notational texts and colour use. Data-Ink principles:

• Above all else, show data.

• Maximise the Data-Ink-Ratio.

• Reduce Non-Data-Ink.

• Reduce redundant Data-Ink.

• Revise and edit.

Indexical colour:

• Restrained use of colour is highly effective in organising a narrative and calling attention to certain elements.

• Generally, using fewer colours works best in a diagram. One key colour or a few colours in the same hue family should be used.

11 • Varying shades of grey show varying quantities better than colour, they have natural visual hierarchy.

For interactive visualisation, Zudilova-Seinstra et al gives e.g. the following principles for design of user interfaces:

• Consistency: Consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations; iden- tical terminology should be used in the interface (e.g. commands, prompts, menus and help screens).

• Cater to universal usability: Recognise the needs of diverse users. Add explanation features for novices and short cut features for experts to enrich the interface design and improve perceived system quality.

• Simple and aesthetic integrity: Graphical elements should incorporate simple design. Avoid clutter. Information should appear in a natural and logical order.

2.2.4 Visual Representations Blackwell [30] said that to be able to design computer displays that are as meaningful as possible to human viewers, one need to have understanding of visual representations. Tufte [29] presented also criteria for good visual information representation where he pre- sented the goal to deliver a visual representation of data to the user of that representation which is most fit for purpose [31], [29]. He described how there is no single hard and fast rule for creating good representations because the nature of the data, the users of the data, etc. are enormously varied. The following criteria for good visual representation should anyways be followed:

• Graphical excellence: The greatest number of ideas, in the shortest time, using the least amount of ink, in the smallest space. (This means that the common beautiful and decorative maps that many people are used to are not the best information source.)

• Visual Integrity: The representation should neither distort the underlying data nor create a false impression or interpretation of the data.

• Maximizing the Data-Ink-Ratio: Superfluous elements should be removed. Borders, back- grounds, use of 3D etc. might just distract the user from the information itself. Priority should be set to the data and not the visual appearance of its representation.

• Aesthetic Elegance: Is not based on the physical beauty of an information visualisation, but rather the simplicity of the design evoking the complexity of the data clearly.

2.2.5 Visulisation Displays It should be clearly stated, that the design of a visualisation system or a digital map is designed for the specific display on which it was created. Computer screens, Ipads, phones etc. vary in e.g. size and resolution and the user can have lots of different settings for e.g. brightness. Wei B. et al. [32] claimed resolution and physical size of a display play an important role in determining how much information can or should be displayed on a screen. Ware [33] described how different screen sizes where interpreted differently by the user and discussed how screen sizes could be

12 optimised for the human brain. Baudisch [34] claimed that there is no technology that allows production of one piece, high-quality displays of arbitrary size. One must use a combination of visualisation displays together with a suitable visualisation technique. Thus, a design is hard to optimise for all displays. If the users have different displays and settings, the visual appearance will be different as well. The designer must bare this in mind.

2.2.6 The Visual Information Seeking Mantra Shneiderman [13] formulated the Visual Information Seeking Mantra, based on human perception where he described the need for GIS and other visualisation designs to have the functionality to overview, zoom and filter, then choose details-on-demand. This means that the user should be able to overview at large scale a region with a certain setup of objects, shapes and colours and then be able to zoom into a certain portion of interest and there filter the visualised layers and objects to meet the users demands. Then the user should be able to, on demand, visualise certain details about objects of his or hers choice.

2.3 Cartography When dealing with the issues regarding maps and especially the visualisation of maps as in this thesis, it is critical to address the subject of cartography [35]. It is the foundation of most princi- ples, ideas and conventions defining the production, design and presentation of maps [36].

2.3.1 Cartography Cartography is the science or art of making and drawing maps [35]. The International Carto- graphic Association [36] defines cartography as dealing with the conception, production, dissem- ination and study of maps. Robinson [14] further describes cartography as a mix of science and art that combines mathematical and geometrical problems together with visual arts. This indicates cartography is not only about the making but also very much about presentation. Maps have been made for thousands of years and cartography is therefore a well-established and studied science [37]. It can be divided into an analogue and digital part.

2.3.2 Digital Cartography Visvalingam [38] describes digital cartography as the technology concerned with the construction and use of computer-based systems for cartography and its applications. It is constructed of the perspectives of presenting geometrical and technological data in an artistic and communicative way and is therefore to be the basis of many GIS. Even though analogue and digital cartography are made up of the same science and ideas, the differences are naturally extensive. One important difference is the use of data storage in databases for digital cartography. An analogue map is fixed and cannot be changed in any other extent than perhaps adding some features on top of the existing ones. A digital map however can be interactively changed, retrieving and discarding certain data sets through queries to the database. The cartographic process is therefore always on-going. Already in the early days of computer-based systems, two trends in digital cartography could be identified and these should be separated:

13 • Automated Cartography.

• Computer-Assisted Cartography.

These two trends contain the same techniques and methods but have different objectives. In Automated Cartography, the aim is to simply replace manual processes, while in Computer- Assisted Cartography, the aim is to automate geometrical calculations but not the creative design element of the maps.

2.3.3 Map Conventions When it comes to cartographic issues, as well as any other design of interactive visualisation sys- tems, many researchers agree on the importance of taking existing conventions into account [12], [30], [14]. Since the first cartographic maps were made thousands of years ago, there has been plenty of time to develop certain common known details about e.g. symbolisation and colour us- age [2]. Zudilova-Seinstra et al claims that a visualisation designer must be aware of the standard conventions in visual representations. If this is mixed up, the user must re-implement their mental model. These shifts should be avoided since they can be confusing to the user. Zudilova-Seinstra et al mentions e.g. the convention of colours: red = danger, amber = caution and green = safe. If a constructor of traffic lights suddenly omits this convention, it would probably have catastrophic effects. See Figure 9 [39].

Figure 9: Red = Danger, Amber = Caution, Green = Safe. Traffic lights use the convention of safety for colours.

Blackwell [30] adds that designs can be easily interpreted if they follow existing designs and Robinson [14] further claims that if the conventions are completely regarded, this would mean inconvenience to the map user which further indicates poor map design, even though the rest of the design is well-defined. Robinson [14] mentions e.g. the convention of the colour blue = water and green = vegetation as well as the use of wavelength progression of colours as basis for hypsometric shading, e.g. low altitude elevation being green, followed by yellow and then red for high altitudes. See Figure 10 [40] for an example, where also blue is used to show water.

14 Figure 10: Elevation map using the altitude colour conventions.

This means, since the yellow-green region has the highest relative luminosity, that the inter- mediate yellow region is the most visible, which is probably the most unimportant region for most purposes, but since this convention exist, it cannot be ignored. The brightness could however be adjusted. Another convention is to show amounts, such as temperature or amount of rain, as dark in- dicating more and light indicating less [14]. See Figure 11 [41] where dark red shows very hot areas and dark blue shows very cold areas. The lighter areas are regions closer to 0◦C.

Figure 11: Temperature map with convention dark = more, light = less.

15 Some lettering conventions also exist. The basics are to use black or white colours for the lettering. In geographical maps, lettering is placed as [14]:

• Following entire regions, e.g. mountain ranges, countries etc., covering the region with spacing between the letters.

• Small features should either completely contain or be completely outside their lettering.

• Names of point locations should be placed on either side and slightly above or under it.

The use of a standardisation for the lettering would in some cases be good, but the standard would actually just be valid for that particular scale and feature combination.

2.3.4 Map Design The study of map design is perhaps the most important subject relevant to this thesis work. Ac- cording to Robinson [14], map design is the most complex of all cartography aspects. All map components should be presented to the user as an integrated whole, devised systematically to fit the purpose of the user. Robinson [14] presents a number of map design guidelines, not rules, to achieve good design. First of all, as stated by Robinson [14], if existing map conventions are not taken into account, they will create confusion and inconvenience to the user, which implies the map itself has a bad design. The aim of the cartographic design should be to present the map data in such a fashion that the map, as a whole, appears as an integrated unit and so that each item included is clear, legible and neither more nor less prominent than it should be [14]. The objects intended to stand out should be visually significant. They should appear so different from their surroundings that they excite the eyes. Below follows some factors for increased visual significance:

1. The degree to which an item departs from its expected appearance. The more it departs, the more interesting it is.

2. The relative complexity of its delineation. The more complex the item is, the more visually interesting it is.

3. The relative brightness of an item. The brighter an item is, the more visually important it is.

4. The relative size of an item. The larger an item is, the more significant it is visually.

Robinson [14] further claims that, in the case of maps, the visual detail presentation is primarily a matter of clarity, legibility and relative contrast of the detail items. The outlining of a map depends upon an understanding of the contrast of lines, shapes, colours, brightness and the principles of balance. Minimum symbol size is also critical. If the symbol size is too small for the human eye to interpret, the symbol is of no use and indicates poor design. Below are a few approximate minimum symbol sizes for different viewing distances [14]:

• 45.7 cm viewing distance = 0.25 mm

• 152.4 cm viewing distance = 0.76 mm

16 • 304.8 cm viewing distance = 1.78 mm

Lines can be somewhat thinner since they have lengths [14]. On a digital map, these distances and sizes can be converted into sizes dependent on different zoom levels. Size is however not enough to decide if an object is visually important or not. Contrast must be added, which is the most important visual element according to Robinson [14]. He further claims that the variation of light and dark is the most important of all contrast elements. Anything that can be seen must have a brightness rating and anything must vary in brightness if to be easy distinguishable from its surroundings. Therefore, the contrast of brightness is one of the fundamentals of visibility. Simultaneous contrast can also be used to increase legibility. That is, the use of e.g. light areas next to dark to make the dark look darker and the light look lighter, called induction. See Figure 12 [42], where the middle stripe is most significant in the edges and less significant in the middle region.

Figure 12: Example of how simultaneuos contrast affect the visual significance.

Lines that are used should be straight [14]. Wobbly lines indicate weakness, uncertainty and less distinct design. The visual appearance can also be varied with patterns. Lines however, force the eyes to move in the direction of the lines [14]. If the map consists of many lines, such as in a dense line pattern, they will make it hard for the eye to focus on one point and therefore make it harder to locate a position. See Figure 13 [43]. This effect does not occur for dot patterns, which is why Figure 15 [44] appears more stable than Figure 14 [45].

17 Figure 13: Badly considered line designs can hurt the eyes.

Figure 14: Map with line pattern. Figure 15: Map with dot pattern.

According to Robinson [14], colour is without doubt the most complex medium with which a cartographer works. Colour exists only in the eyes of the observer. It would be close to impossible to explain it to a blind person. The map choice of colours should be based on basic fundamental facts regarding the reaction of the mind and the eye to colour. He states that even the use of small amounts of colour seems to make remarkable differences in legibility and emphasis of maps.

18 Since the eye is not particularly sensitive to hue changes, the further apart, visually, the hues can be separated, the better [14]. Complementary colours are preferable used to achieve high contrast. The complementary colours can be seen as opposite to each other in Figure 16 [46]. For the use of three complementary colours, a triangle similar to between yellow, blue and red in the Figure can be used.

Figure 16: The complementary colours, oposit to eachother.

The fact that the eye is more sensitive to red, then green, then yellow, then blue, then purple also indicates a basis of colour use based on how much emphasis the designer desires for the data to be presented. When dividing colours into brightness values, Robinson [14] says that darker colours should be given more distribution than lighter colours. In a well-balanced design, nothing is too light, too dark, too long, too short, too small or too large. The process of arriving at proper balance is called layout. Lettering is also an important map design element that is easily forgotten. Lettering should con- sider [14]:

• The style (font etc.)

• The form (upper case, lower case slant etc.)

• The size

• The colour (and the background)

• The positioning

19 The legibility of lettering depends primarily of the colour and the background on which it stands, that is, the visual contrast between background and foreground [14]. For consistency reasons, the lettering should be equal all over the map, but this is not cooperating with the background variations. The important issue with colour impairment among many users gives a challenge to the de- signers. Designers and especially cartographers should ensure that their work is clear to the colour impaired as well as to the viewer with full colour vision [21]. This kind of design is called Barrier- Free or Universal design, which can be used by almost anyone. Bernhard & Kelso [21] claims that colour impairment is probably the most wide spread physiological impairment regarding map reading. Despite that fact, map reading for colour impaired has not been studied extensively. However, a couple of discoveries have been made regarding map reading for colour impaired. It has been found that colour impaired readers make errors trying to name boundary lines on multi- coloured terrain maps [47]. Another discovery was that only a small number of colour impaired could name the colours on a weather map without errors [48]. Cole [49] found that subjects with colour vision impairment make considerably more errors when identifying colours under reduced illumination. These discoveries also indicate that colour schemes used in map design should be based on colour impairments. Figure 17 [21] gives an example of how a person with Red-Green deficiency sees a colour scheme compared to a person with normal vision.

Figure 17: How users with Red-Green deficiency (below) see normal colours (above).

A greater clarity can also be given to the maps by:

1. Choosing unambiguous colour combinations.

2. Using alternative variables.

3. Directly annotating features.

If regarding these techniques, the designer will improve maps for those with full colour vision and establish a level of distinction for those with colour vision impairment. To help everyone more easily read a map under normal and poorly lighted conditions, Cole [49] states that one can use a strong feature-ground contrast with a clear difference in brightness and saturation or a reduced number of classes in colour ramps. For example, the cartographer should use colours with strong contrast and supplemental visual variables such as shape, size and pattern variations to avoid problematic colour combinations. To accommodate Red-Green impaired readers, Brewer [50] makes the following suggestions:

20 1. Vary lightness in the red-orange-yellow end of the rainbow.

2. Omit yellow-green to avoid confusion with orange.

3. For bipolar data, omit green and use a scheme with red, orange, yellow, light blue and dark blue.

Figure 18 [51] gives examples for how to vary point-, line- and area features. Figure 19 [52] and 20 [53] give example for how to best represent points and lines for users with normal vision and Red-Green deficiency.

Figure 18: How to vary point-, line- & area features.

21 Figure 19: How to represent point features.

Figure 20: How to represent line features.

22 2.3.5 Interactive Design As brought up above, there exist a number of guidelines and design rules for cartography. How- ever, according to Andrienka et al [54], the design of interactive maps, dynamic maps, multi- media maps and maps combined with other graphics are still lacking guidelines. The available empirical evidence is also quite fragmentary and hard to generalise. Andrienka et al also brings up the importance of improving the understanding of human perceptual and cognitive abilities in dealing with spatial and temporal information and the visual display of such information. They recommend that appropriate design rules for interactive displays of spatial and temporal informa- tion should be created from this basis. In addition to the map design guidelines for colour impaired brought up in the section above, interactive designs could further provide tool tips or labels that are displayed on-demand [21]. They should also be able to provide the opportunity of switching between different colour schemes and designs optimised for different kinds of colour vision abilities.

3 Research Methodology

This section contains the main body of the thesis and describes the steps from concepts to real- isation and evaluation. In section 3.1, the collection of user inputs via interviews is described. Section 3.2 describes the step of analysing previous related work via a literature study. Section 3.3 describes how the design of the maps Primärkartan and GSD-Fastighetskartan, visualised in dpPower, were compared to other map sources. Section 3.4 describes how the formulation of suggestions for new map appearances was conducted. Finally, section 5 presents the steps of evaluating the thesis and receiving feedback on the results.

3.1 User Input According to e.g. Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12], user-centeredness is critically important when it comes to the design of interactive visualisation systems. When creating a new design, one must consider who will be the user and for what purpose. This is because users are very different and have different abilities and preferences. Therefore, also the users must be studied and included in the entire design process. The aim of this thesis is not to create a new visualisation system or GIS, but still to develop the use of existing map designs in a GIS, which means the same user-centeredness approach should be considered. Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] describes the process of repeatedly analysing the users, designing and evaluating the design, from initially a Low-fidelity state to a High-fidelity end result. In this thesis time frame, there is however only room for one cycle. Therefore, the first step was to evaluate the users and their needs and to collect user inputs for the design.

3.1.1 Interviews There are several techniques to collect data such as user inputs [55]. In this case, the aim would be to get a deeper understanding of the user needs, rather than just receiving quantitative feedback [56]. There was a need for qualitative discussion, still regarding a chosen topic. Therefore, a semi-structured interview method was applied. In this way, the users would be able to speak freely and informally to the interviewer, which would have a certain framework of questions, not necessarily answered directly.

23 In an optimum world, all users would be analysed and all inputs collected [12]. However, this was not the case due to time constraints. Since unstructured or semi-structured interviews are rather time consuming, this meant a selection of interviewees had to be made [57]. The selection was made with the aim to have interviewees representing the overall user group. Thus, six customers of dpPower where chosen, based on their company size (number of users) and how long they had been using dpPower. Four of these accepted to be interviewed and are presented below:

Table 1: Interviewed customers

Customer size: time of usage: Customer: Smaller: Since 2015 1 Medium: Since 2017 2 Larger: Since long 3 Larger: Since long 4

Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] states that the following questions must be answered:

• Who are the users and what are their characteristics?

• What are their tasks?

• What are the objects and processes that need to be visualised?

• What kind of insight should the visualisation support?

Based on this, the following framework of questions was formulated to be able to receive relevant inputs and discuss relevant topics with the customer interviewee:

1. What is your name and what are your working tasks?

2. For how long have you been a customer of dpPower?

3. How are you using background maps in dpPower today? Which background maps? How often? For what purposes? What can they be used for?

4. What information in the background maps is of most importance to you and why?

5. What is a typical view of your computer screen during ordinary usage of dpPower? Can you send screen shots?

6. What, if any, have you changed or defined yourself after the first installation from Digpro? Symbolisation? Colour settings? What is being showed?

7. Any further changes that would be of use for you?

8. Any general point of views?

9. Would you be interested in evaluating the result of the thesis?

24 To aid a qualitative discussion, the interviewees were asked by email on before hand if they could participate and the subject of discussion was introduced. Thereafter, phone meetings were booked so the full extent of the conversation could be dedicated to the main purpose of discussion. The phone meetings were held with one or more employees from the customer companies and notes were made all along.

3.1.2 Criteria Based on the interviews, a number of user criteria for good design in dpPower could be found. These were e.g. criteria regarding colour use of the background maps, differences in the usage of Primärkartan and GSD-Fastighetskartan, important and unimportant map features, keeping of conventions etc. which are presented and discussed thoroughly in section 4.

3.2 Literature Study Apart from collecting user inputs to guide the design of the background maps, there was a need for a study of relevant research material regarding the map design and visualisation topics. This was performed by reading various relevant literature, primarily found on the Internet and making notes of relevant information. This material is presented in chapter 2 and contributes with existing solutions, methods and tips to achieve good design.

3.3 Map Comparisons The default appearance of GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan in dpPower at Digpro was also compared to other map sources such as Eniro maps [58], Google maps [59] and Stockholmskartan [60]. The maps were overviewed and notes of important differences and similarities were made, which are presented in section 4.

3.4 Formulation of New Map Appearance After analysing the background maps GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan together with the network in dpPower, based on the literature study, customer interviews and map comparisons, a new map appearance could be formulated. The design principles not following the general considerations of good design where noted together with suggestions mentioned by the intervie- wees. Then, the visual appearance was adjusted and figures showing current version and new suggestions were created.

3.5 Evaluation and Feedback As the final step of the cycle for user-centred design, described by Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12], the design result must be evaluated. They present the need for including the end-users in the evaluation. However, dpPower has many potential future users in the GIT sector, which the visualisation design must be adapted for. Map design is also not just an issue for dpPower users. Most of the same fundamentals apply for any potential user. Therefore, four different test groups were chosen for the evaluation:

25 1. The current users of dpPower.

2. GIT students at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

3. A mix of users with no previous GIT/GIS experience.

4. Employees at Digpro.

The result was evaluated with the test groups in both a quantitative and qualitative sense.

3.5.1 Quantitative Test groups 1-3 took part in a quantitative evaluation via a questionnaire survey. The survey asked the respondents to state which of the three test groups, or other, they belong to and if they suffer from any colour vision impairment. Then the survey presented figures of current design and new suggestions for both Primärkartan and GSD-Fastighetskartan together with the network. The respondents were asked to choose which of the figures they prefer and specify their answer with a comment. The figures were presented as version 1, version 2 etc. to not imply which is the new suggestion and affect the respondents choice.

3.5.2 Qualitative Test group 4 took part in a qualitative seminar of the thesis results where the figures of current design and new suggestions were presented and discussed. Since the participants in test group 4 were all familiar with the current dpPower design, the figures were presented as current design, new suggestion 1 etc.

4 Results

This section presents the results of the thesis. It starts with presenting the obtained results from the map comparisons between background maps visualised with the network in dpPower and other map sources in section 4.1. This is followed by section 4.2 where the answers to the problem formulations “What is good design?” and “Would another appearance of the background maps GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan better complement the customer usage of dpPower?“ are answered and the new suggested map appearance is presented. The final part of this section presents and analyses the obtained feedback from the evaluation where the feedback from the questionnaire survey is presented in section 4.3 and analysed in section 4.4. The feedback from the seminar is presented in section 4.5 and analysed in section 4.6.

4.1 Map Comparisons When comparing the different map sources, some key design factors could be identified. See links to each map in the reference list. Both Eniro maps [58], Google maps [59] and Stockholmskartan [60] use the convention of land use. This indicates that keeping vegetation = green, open land = yellow and water = blue is important to not confuse the reader. Google maps and Stockholmskartan use a grey tone for built up areas while Eniro map uses brown/orange. This indicates that the convention of how to represent built up area is not as strong. The facts that green sometimes interfere with red seems

26 to have been disregarded. E.g. Eniro maps use red for major roads while Google maps just have some red point features. All maps generalise rather much in small-scale versions where Eniro maps has the less in- formation for small scales but rather much in large scales. Google maps require very zoomed in views to visualise e.g. buildings. Stockholmskartan seems to be focused on roads, which is what is most visually significant in the map. No maps show information too small to be identified. Text positioning in all maps seems to be thoroughly considered and scale dependent to aid as complement information but not interfere with the rest of the map.

4.2 Answer to Problem Formulation The problems formulated in the beginning of this thesis were: firstly to answer the general ques- tion “What is good design?” and secondly to tell whether there is a better appearance of the background maps GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan for usage in dpPower and in that case, what is this better appearance? Answers to these problems are presented below.

4.2.1 What is good design? As presented in the literature study of related work in chapter 2, several researchers have been discussing the topic of design for good visualisation, including map design. Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12], Shneiderman [13] etc. discusses the topic of design for interactive visualisation systems, such as a GIS where the following key features can be highlighted:

• An interactive design should provide the possibility to first overview, zoom and filter, and then choose details on-demand. (The Visual Information Seeking Mantra)

• Interactive designs should be consistent in similar situations.

• The designer must recognise the need from diverse users.

Since dpPower is an interactive design, according to Shneiderman [13], the Visual Information Seeking Mantra applies. This means that the use of the background maps in dpPower must be highly interactive, giving the opportunity to overview at a simple state at small scales and filter out important information at larger scales. The user should be able to interactively change the visualisation to highlight different objects and choose and hide details on-demand. Naturally, the design should be consistent, which applies to almost any user-adapted system. If the design is inconsistent or has no logic, it will be much harder to interpret for the user. As mentioned by e.g. Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] & Blaser et al [25], user-centeredness is important in interactive visualisation designs. There are almost unlimited different preferences, abilities and disabilities among potential users, e.g. the important colour vision deficiencies de- scribed by e.g. Machado et al [17] and Brewer [50]. If these diverse needs are not recognised and considered, the end-result of the design might very well cause confusion to several users, which does not indicate good design. One of the key features of map design that e.g. Tufte [29], [31] and Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] describes is simplicity. They mention that:

• A resulting structure should be as simple as possible (Pragnanz).

• Graphical elements should have simple design.

27 • Superfluous data should be removed.

• Aesthetic elegance is based on the simplicity of the design, evoking the complexity of the data.

Tufte [29] focuses most of his thoughts to the visual appearance of graphs with the focus to show some amount of data in an effectively way to the reader. Still, graphs and maps have much in common in providing a visual interpretation to help the reader more easily understand the data. Therefore, the principles discussed by Tufte should be considered, but with caution. Tufte [29] claims e.g. that graphical elements should have simple design and unnecessary data be removed. Applied on a GIS or a map, this would indicate simple symbol design and the importance of only showing data that is of value to the user. He further claims that a lot of data should be used to achieve good Data-Ink-ratio. In the case of a map, this can be seen as rather contradictory to a simple design. The focus should lie in presenting as much relevant data as possible, in as simple way as possible. The used “ink” should be dedicated to showing data but in many cases, no data is better than irrelevant data. In lots of maps, a focus lies in trying to present a “beautiful” map with lots of decorations. See e.g. Figure 21 [61], which is an example of old mapping style with lots of decorative figures. Tufte [29] states however that the aesthetic elegance is not based on physical beauty, but on the designs ability to present complex data in a simple manner. All details in the map should therefore be devoted to presenting relevant data and nothing else.

Figure 21: Old maps can contain lots of decorative symbols.

Other design features brought up by Tufte [29] and Zudilova-Seinstra et al are:

28 • Use appropriate visualisation technique with the right degree of image quality.

• Use Gestalt principles to increase legibility: Similarity, symmetry, common fate, familiar- ity, continuation, closure, proximity and figure-ground.

• The most important organising principles are connectedness and symmetry.

• Contrast is the most important visual element and variation of light and dark the most important contrast element.

• Use straight lines and not too many.

• Be aware of minimum symbol sizes.

According to Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12], the image quality of the visualisation should not simply be considered a factor of increased legibility. One must also apply an appropriate visualisation technique for specific tasks together with the choice of image quality. For increased legibility, the Gestalt principles are preferably used. The map should e.g. have strong figure-ground relationships and use similar and dissimilar symbolisation to enhance spe- cific objects. The use of connectedness and symmetry is also important to organise objects into different groups for the reader. The most important visualisation element to achieve in a map design is that of contrast. Differ- ent objects must be easily distinguishable from each other and the surroundings. This means e.g. that the background maps should not interfere with the network in dpPower. The figure-ground colours or luminance should be different. Still, the network features also need to have a good contrast to each other, why complementary colours are preferably used. Simultaneous contrast is also efficient. The use and design of lines is of great relevance to dpPower. For high legibility, they must be straight. Since lines affect the eyes ability to focus on certain points, there should not be too many lines in the same view. The designer does however not control this, but rather the user and the size and shape of the network itself. If there is a need to place point symbols in dense line regions, there should however be the possibility to hide the line features. Naturally, minimum symbol sizes should be considered. If an object is too small, for a certain zoom level, it is of no use since the reader cannot see or interpret the object. E.g. according to Robinson [14], the following minimum sizes apply for different viewing distances:

• 45.7 cm viewing distance = 0.25 mm

• 152.4 cm viewing distance = 0.76 mm

• 304.8 cm viewing distance = 1.78 mm

The designs must also be adapted to the user abilities of colour vision and colour vision deficien- cies. E.g. Brewer [50] presents a number of tips for good design with colour vision impairment in consideration:

• Varying shades of grey better shows varying quantities than varying colours.

• A restrained colour-use is effective in calling attention to certain elements.

29 • The surrounding colours affect the visual appearance of a colour.

• Divide values between black and white in no more than 8 shades of grey.

• The yellow-green region has the highest relative luminosity.

• Colour impairment is most common among men.

• Red-Green impairment is the most common.

• Choose unambiguous colour combinations.

• Use alternative variables.

Brewer [50] means that if e.g. map elements are to show different quantities, they should be varying shades of grey rather than different colours. The colour use should over all be rather restraint. This both makes the map look cleaner and gives a higher possibility to highlight certain features. For dpPower, with the need of showing important network data with complement of a background map, this would mean e.g. that the background map should consist of few colours and the network data should have high contrast to those colours. Here one must always remember that the visual appearance of a colour is highly affected by the surroundings. Since Robinson [14] states the human eye is not very sensitive to detecting value differences, there is no need for using more than 8 shades of grey between black and white. The human eye would not be able to differ between more. When it comes to colour impairment, first of all, the American Optometric Association [19] states that Red-Green impairment is by far the most common and that men are most affected. To achieve a Barrier-Free design, all colour vision impairments should be considered. The designer must however find a balance between adapting the map to the colour vision impaired and keep- ing the legibility, conventions and logical designs to those with full colour vision. Therefore, it might be enough to focus on an adaption for Red-Green impairment. To do so, Brewer [50] sug- gests that the design should use alternative variables such as shape, size and patterns instead of colours and the colours used should be of unambiguous combinations. Red-Green colour vision impaired will have easier to understand a map if lights are varied in the red-orange-yellow end of the rainbow and yellow-green is omitted. This means that the colour region with the highest rel- ative luminosity, which would be most appropriate for enhancement of some features, should be omitted if Red-Green impairment is considered. A scheme of red, orange, yellow, light blue and dark blue should be used, i.e. green should be omitted. Figure 22 [62] shows examples of colour combinations to avoid for users with Red-Green deficiency. Figure 23 [63] shows examples of how users with Red-Green deficiency (Deuteranopia and Protanopia) and Blue-Yellow deficiency (Tritanopia) see colours compared to a user with normal vision. Figure 24 [64] shows an example of how a spectral colour scheme can be modified for users with Red-Green deficiency.

30 Figure 22: Example of colour combinations to avoid for Red-Green impaired.

Figure 23: How colour vision impaired experience the normal colours.

31 Figure 24: How a spectral colour scheme can be modified for Red-Green impaired.

One of the most important factors in map design is the consideration of existing conventions, as brought up by e.g. Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] and Robinson [14]. They mention the following conventions:

• Safety: Red = Danger, Amber = Caution, Green = Safe.

• Land use: Blue = Water, Green = Vegetation, Yellow = Open land.

• Altitudes: Green = Low, Yellow = Medium, Red = High.

• Amounts: Light = Less, Dark = More.

• Lettering colour: Black or white.

• Lettering positioning: Slightly above or below, on either side of point features. Small features should completely contain or be outside the text.

First of all one can tell that these are not all existing conventions regarding map design. There are several, more or less, well known conventions that are not brought up here. However, one can clearly state that all conventions cannot be combined. The safety convention is of high relevance to the dpPower application since the electrical network contain several different types of electrical cables and stations of varying danger. This convention says that high voltage cables should be red and the low voltage cables be green etc. Already here, one can state that a shadowed altitude map from green to red would be a bad background since it would interfere with the cables of the same colour and give a bad contrast between the background and foreground. The designer must choose a convention to use and then use appropriate design in combination with that convention. The convention of having black/white lettering is not very strong since it must also follow the design rules of adaption to the surroundings according to Robinson [14]. A black text is of no use

32 in a black surrounding etc. The optimum visualisation case would be to adapt the colour of every text-object to its surroundings to achieve maximum contrast. This is however not cooperating with the consistency property and would not be user-friendly. Too much varying colours could also confuse the user. Therefore, the colour with the highest average contrast to the surroundings should be chosen, preferably but not necessarily, black or white. According to Robinson [14], the placement of the lettering should also be consistent and not interfere with other objects. If possible, it should follow the convention to be placed slightly above or under a point feature, on either side. To increase legibility, small features should not overlap the lettering. They should completely contain or be outside of it. All the features and methods mentioned above serve no purpose however if the user desires a different design. A good design is user-centred and the users tell if the design is good or not. Based on the performed interviews, customer criteria could be formulated which implies a number of design principles.

• The information in the background maps is most important, but they must be nice too look at.

• The background maps are just complement and must be toned down.

• What background map is used depends on location: Primärkartan for the city and GSD- Fastighetskartan for the countryside.

• In the city, rather few and specific features are important. It is information around roads such as e.g. road edges, buildings, trees, property borders etc., which should be detailed.

• On the countryside, the detail level and accuracy is not as important, except for the road details.

• Unnecessary information, such as e.g. contour lines and certain borderlines, could be hid- den.

• Texts, such as house numbers and street names, are used but should be placed to not cover important information or not interfere with the information it covers.

• Aerial are used to get a better understanding of an area.

• Municipal users desires well differing municipal buildings and buildings that should be prioritised for electrical supply in the maps.

• A national standard for electrical network appearance is desired.

• It should be quick to use the maps. They should not make the application slow.

• It should be easy to make changes.

Several customers state the importance of the large variety of the users. The customers have plenty of different users, with different demands and different desires. However, throughout the years the importance of the background map visualisation has been discovered. The maps must be nice too look at, even though the information being showed is what is most important. It was found long ago that the background maps must be toned down to serve as a good compliment to

33 the network. This was the result of experience and slowly adapting to the user needs. It will never be possible to make a design optimised for all users, it must be adapted to all viewing points. Customers have developed different colour schemes for the background maps where a blue- grey or grey tone is mostly used for visualisation of Primärkartan in cities. In Digpro’s first installation, Primärkartan is blue-grey which means those who use different colour settings have changed this manually. The change to grey is based on traditions and a better visual experience. Most customers use different background maps depending on the location, city or countryside. All interviewees claim that the important information to be showed in city areas are just a few features around roads, where most digging work is being made and most power cables are placed. This information should be clearly visible in the background maps and have a high detail level. Texts such as e.g. house numbers and street names are also used but these are placed automatically by the application and mostly in non-optimal locations, covering details of interest. These should be placed more suitable or have a non-interfering design. Unnecessary information, such as e.g. contour lines and borderlines between polygons of no use, should be hidden. Municipal customers also express their need for visualising municipal buildings and properties differently to be easily recognised in the map. For example there is a need to easily detect prioritised buildings for electricity supply directly in the map. Those buildings should be presented both in different colours and with relevant information available on-demand. On the countryside however, most customers claim there is not as big need for detailed infor- mation. Therefore GSD-Fastighetskartan is mostly used. Even though it is not perfectly adapted for several purposes, it is used anyway since the countryside is of less importance. However there is still a need for detailed road information. A single vector line is not enough. In an ideal world, there would be just one existing background map covering the desired features and present infor- mation adapted for both cities and the countryside. Today the maps from different providers do not sync their detail level and are updated differently. Users would benefit from the municipalities coordinating their data collections around municipal borders and collaborating with Lantmäteriet for a well synced information exchange between Primärkartan and GSD-Fastighetskartan. Most of the customers express the desire for a national standard for the appearance of elec- trical networks. Then the background maps would also be easily adapted to that appearance. To get a better understanding of an area, aerial photographs are used as complementary information, both on the countryside where details are missing, and in the cities where details might be hard to understand. Naturally, there is a demand for quick use of the maps. If the use of a background map turns the application slow or takes time to load, it is considered bad. This applies for all digital systems and displays. The importance of interactive visualisation and the need for the user to be able to interact with the map design and make changes of his/hers desire has already been discussed. However, some customers mention the need for dpPower to develop a more interactive design where layers and objects visual appearance are easily and quickly changed, perhaps with just a few clicks. There were user inputs indicating the current design change process of layers and objects with the tool "Ritattributverktyget", was complicated.

4.2.2 New suggestion for map appaerance in dpPower Based on the literature study of related work, customer interviews, analysis of current dpPower and background map design together with other map sources, new suggestions for map appear-

34 ance could be found.

Primärkartan First of all, it is clear both from customer interviews and related studies that the background maps must be just a complement to the network and the background map must be toned down. It should just support complementary information and not interfere at all with the network. The original dpPower design follows this quite well with a light blue toned colour for most features. However, some features such as e.g. texts for house numbers, tree symbols and border point symbols are shown in black giving a too high interaction with the network when visualised together. See Figure 25. All the background map features should go in the same hue and vary in brightness when necessary. Light blue is, according to Robinson [14], good as a background map colour since the eye is not much sensitive to blue. However, the eye is even less sensitive to purple so to fulfill the task, the background map should be coloured slightly more in purple, without losing the contrast to white. See Figure 26. This is a rather small change and is not easily detectable when comparing the two maps seen in Figure 25 and 26. The tree and border point symbols however are much less visually significant. These features, together with other details around roads are mentioned as important map information and should be kept.

Figure 25: Current Primärkartan background map design.

35 Figure 26: New suggested Primärkartan background map design.

When it comes to the network design, the issue is mostly about the colouring. The current design uses red and green hues to represent high and low voltage cables. See Figure 27 and 29. As mentioned by e.g. Brewer [50], Red and green is a very bad combination to users with Red- Green colour impairment. They will not be able to differ between the colours. This implies a change of colour and Brewer [50] suggests a scheme of red, orange, yellow, light blue and dark blue to be used. If blue is omitted, purple will be easy distinguishable as well, which follows the purple background suggestion. This means that green could be changed to yellow and variations of yellow. See Figure 28 and 30. Red and green however follows the convention of safety colours for high and low voltage cables well since the red cables would be more dangerous than the green cables. Yellow would imply an average danger, which is not used in current dpPower design. Thus, since the low voltage cables are also not completely safe and yellow is not used, they could be changed into yellow.

36 Figure 28: New suggested network design for Figure 27: Current network design. Red-Green impaired.

Figure 29: Current network design. Figure 30: New suggested network design for Red-Green impaired.

Looking at complementary colours, a purple background map close to blue in combination with a yellow and red network would support each other well and give contrast both in figure- ground relationships but also within the network. See Figures 16, 32 and 35. However, changing from green to yellow is a quite big change and yellow is not always well cooperating with other colours such as white, which is very present in Primärkartan. The design should preferable be adapted for the colour vision impaired but this adaption must not make the design worse for users with normal vision. Therefore, since a GIS allows it, the main suggestion would be to have several designs,

37 adapted for both normal vision, Red-Green impairment and other colour deficiencies easily switched between in dpPower. Therefore, another suggestion is brought up here where green is still primary colour for low voltage objects. See Figures 33 and 36. In any case, the use of alternative variables such as shape and texture should be used, accord- ing to Brewer [50]. This can already be seen in the dpPower design, see Figures 27 - 30, where e.g. the red high voltage cables are dashed while the green low voltage cables are filled. This makes it possible for Red-Green impaired to still be able to distinguish between the two types and it makes it even easier for those with normal vision to distinguish between them. However, the use of dashed lines is currently just a way of representing a different state for the same cable. That way of separating high voltage from low voltage cables could always be used. Naturally, the lines are also connected so the fundamental connectedness principle brought up by Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] applies. The objects also already have a rather simple design where specific shapes such as circles, squares and triangles are used, if the objects are not drawn by shape, which adapts to the Pragnanz principle. The Gestalt principles are not easily detectable in the current dpPower design and perhaps not that relevant to a map, apart from the figure- ground principle. But similar objects, such as e.g. connections points of the network to buildings of course have similar design, which follows the similarity principle. To design similar objects in the similar way makes it much easier to distinguish specific objects when desired by simply making them dissimilar to the rest. Closure and Continuation are more relevant when designing e.g. logotypes that do not present actual geographic relationships. dpPower also already has a rather restrained colour use following that principle mentioned by Tufte [29] and Robinson [14] since no more than eight shades of grey is used in the same hue. dpPower is a GIS and allows for the overview, zoom and filter and details-on-demand principle of the Visual Information Seeking Mantra, mentioned by Shneiderman [13]. The minimum symbol sizes have just been considered on an overview level in this thesis. From analysing the dpPower appearance it is found that in some cases, the smallest scale in which an item is visualised, makes it hard to see the exact shape of the object, e.g. for a fuse in a cable pillar. But the exact size has not been measured with consideration to the viewing distance. Some features are also given an unnecessarily large space, e.g. border points and house numbers, which interfere very much with each other. Therefore, the border points could be scaled down to about half size since they are detail information, visualised in large scales. This is illustrated when comparing Figure 34 with Figures 35 and 36. House numbers positioning should definitely be better considered. This was an issue mentioned by several customers. If the texts are just automatically generated and hard to move or change, they will interfere with both each other and with other map features such as building corners and point features. If texts are just placed manually without consideration, as is the case of texts belonging to the network, the positioning will vary and be inconsistent causing decreased legibility. According to Robinson [14], small features should either completely contain or be outside their texts, which is not the case for e.g. border points. According to Zudilova-Seinstra et al [12] and Robinson [14], the design should be consistent and texts should be placed slightly above or below point features, on either side. To achieve a better readability and interpretation of dpPower, the texts could have a priority position on e.g. bottom right of point features and, if this is not suitable, use the second most prioritised position, e.g. bottom left etc. In some dense places the texts will have to take other positions too. But the constructor of the network should have a standard for text positioning. A rule of thumb for what to do when new objects are created in the vicinity of an already existing text should also be used.

38 Figure 31: Current design of Primärkartan and network, small scale.

Figure 32: New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, small scale.

39 Figure 33: New suggestion for normal vision, small scale.

Figure 34: Current design of Primärkartan and network, large scale.

40 Figure 35: New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, large scale.

Figure 36: New suggestion for normal vision, large scale.

GSD-Fastighetskartan

The design of GSD-Fastighetskartan as a background map in dpPower was in need of much more change than Primärkartan. First of all, it must be stated that GSD-Fastighetskartan is used

41 primarily on the countryside by the users and always with the idea of it not being a perfectly detailed map. It should just give approximate visual guidance of locations, such as what is forest and what is open land. Some users however have expressed their need of having more detail information, similar to Primärkartan, for the roads, otherwise, the detail level do not have to be as accurate. The study area of Stora Essingen is perhaps too much of a city area to use GSD- Fastighetskartan as background, still it contains the same features as the countryside and could be analysed in the same way. The number one problem of the current appearance is the non-existing transparency in the background map colours. The colours take over the entire visualisation and interfere in great extent with the network. See Figure 37, 40 and 43. The colours should be toned down. But unlike Primärkartan, GSD-Fastighetskartan consists of land feature types describing the land use, while Primärkartan is just different object types. This indicates a need of not having all background map elements in the same hue. The current design uses the convention of water = blue, vegetation = green and open land = yellow, which is a good way of presenting the countryside, at least for a user with normal vision. A person with e.g. Red-Green impairment will not be able to fully interpret these colours. E.g. the yellow-green vegetation should be omitted. The same design discussion about the network brought up for Primärkartan above also applies here. For Red-Green impaired, the green should be changed to yellow. But the yellow is not well cooperating with yellow open land and keeping green is not cooperating with green vegetation. Still, one would like to keep the conventions in as great extent as possible to not cause confusion. Thus, there is not really a perfect solution to the design. Even more here than for Primärkartan, the best solution would be to use different designs for different users. One for normal vision, one for Red-Green impaired etc. easily changed between in dpPower. The suggestion is to use a scheme of red, orange, yellow, light blue and dark blue, as suggested by Brewer [50], for Red-Green impaired. This could use a more dark blue hue for vegetation and white or very bright yellow for open land. See Figures 38, 41 and 44. Here, all colours are toned down and buildings are made more discrete. Some unnecessary texts are also removed, as well as the contour lines. This was information mentioned as non-important by the users. This kind of map would not obey the existing conventions to a user with normal vision. A better map appearance would be to keep the green network, but change it into a more green-blue tone and let the vegetation be a more discrete yellow-green. See Figures 39, 42 and 45. Borderlines and multiple building designs are also superfluous information. However, munic- ipal buildings should preferable be differentiated for municipal users, but not for other users. This information is either hidden or made more discrete in the new design. See comparison between Figures 46 and 47. The same design discussion for text positioning as brought up for Primärkartan above applies also here. Finally, the customers mentioned a problem in Lantmäteriet and the municipalities not being cooperating. Several customers have users in multiple municipalities and desire evenly updated and similar data from their data sources. To retrieve data from all different municipalities and from Lantmäteriet etc. is considered non-optimal. Especially since the data is not always coher- ent. A better solution would be if Lantmäteriet and the municipalities could deliver a common data source for a single background map that was designed to be used both in cities and on the countryside.

42 c Lantmäteriet

Figure 37: Current design of GSD-Fastighetskartan and network, small scale.

c Lantmäteriet

Figure 38: New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, small scale.

43 c Lantmäteriet

Figure 39: New suggestion for normal vision, small scale.

c Lantmäteriet

Figure 40: Current design of GSD-Fastighetskartan and network, large scale.

44 c Lantmäteriet

Figure 41: New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, large scale.

c Lantmäteriet

Figure 42: New suggestion for normal vision, large scale.

45 c Lantmäteriet

Figure 43: Current design of GSD-Fastighetskartan and network, large scale.

c Lantmäteriet

Figure 44: New suggestion for Red-Green impaired, large scale.

46 c Lantmäteriet

Figure 45: New suggestion for normal vision, large scale.

c Lantmäteriet

Figure 46: Borderlines in current design.

47 c Lantmäteriet

Figure 47: Borderlines in new suggestion.

c Lantmäteriet

Figure 48: Current random positioning of texts.

48 c Lantmäteriet

Figure 49: Example with structured text positioning.

49 4.3 Quantitative Feedback The results from the distributed survey are presented and analysed below. There were a total of 30 respondents and the distribution was quite even between the three test groups “User of dpPower” (6 respondents), “GIT-student, no experience of dpPower” (7 respondents), “No ex- perience of GIT or dpPower” (8 respondents). However, the largest respondent group said to belong to “Other”, which were mostly GIT-students that actually had experience of dpPower or employees at Digpro, not directly using dpPower (9 respondents). See Figure 50. Two participants also said to have a Red-Green deficiency while the majority had normal colour vision. See Figure 51.

Figure 50: SurveyQ. 1: Who are you? - Respondents test group.

Figure 51: SurveyQ. 2: Do you have any colour vision impairment?

The first comparison the respondents made were to state which of the current Primärkartan background map (blue), Figure 25 and the new suggestion (purple), Figure 26 was less visually significant. See Figure 52 were version 1 is current version and version 2 is new suggestion.

50 The question aimed only to see if the purple colour was less visually significant than blue, which most thought. However, there were some other problems identified. Some mentioned the purple version was too toned down and did not have enough contrast to the white background.

Figure 52: SurveyQ. 3: Choose which of the background maps below is less visually significant. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion.

Then the respondents took a choice between the current network appearance (Green and Red), Figure 27 and the new suggestion for Red-Green impaired, Figure 29. See Figure 53 where version 1 is current version and version 2 is new suggestion. Observe that the respondents were asked to choose which of the designs they prefer, not to consider other users. As can be seen, most respondents prefer the current red and green version. Some mention the fact that green has higher contrast to red. One of the Red-Green impaired said the yellow-red version is more distinct, but bright yellow is slightly annoying. The major problem regarding the yellow-red version is also mentioned to be yellow in combination with the white background. It gives a low contrast both for users with Red-Green deficiency and for users with normal vision. Yellow is also bad in printed material.

51 Figure 53: SurveyQ. 4: Choose which of the networks below you prefer. - Choice of red/green or yellow/red network. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion.

Then, the respondents were asked to choose between three map designs visualising the net- work together with the Primärkartan background map, first a small-scale and then a large-scale version. The three designs presented were: the current design (Figure 31 & 34), a new suggestion with red and green network but the new background map (Figure 32 & 35) and a new suggestion with yellow and red network and new background map (Figure 33 & 36). See Figure 54 (small scale) and Figure 55 (large scale) where version 1 is current version, version 2 is new red and green suggestion and version 3 is new yellow and red suggestion. As can be seen, most respondents prefer either of the red and green versions. This implies both that the small change to purple from blue is not very clear and that the yellow and red network is not preferred. Even the respondents with Red-Green deficiency chose the red and green version, mostly based on the yellow and red colours being too bright. The large scale version has no votes for yellow and red and a much more obvious choice of the suggested version with new background.

52 Figure 54: SurveyQ. 5: Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best complemented by the background map. - Choice of network + Primärkartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2.

Figure 55: SurveyQ. 6: Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best complemented by the background map. - Choice of network + Primärkartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2.

53 Then, the evaluation switched to GSD-Fastighetskartan with the same structure where respon- dents had to choose between three design versions of network in combination with the background map. In Figures 56 - 58 below, version 1 is current version with green and red network on a very bright background following land feature conventions (Figures 37, 40, 43). Version 2 is a new red and green suggestion where the background map is toned down and conventions kept (Figure 38, 41, 44). Version 3 is a new yellow and red suggestion where the land use conventions are left to achieve higher contrast (Figure 39, 42, 45). Figure 56 presents results for a small-scale version and Figure 57 and 58 for two large-scale versions. As can be seen, the current version is considered bad. Even if some respondents chose it, it is considered terrible by several. The background interferes too much with the network, has too much information and looks ugly. Overall the suggestion of keeping the land feature conventions, but in a toned down version, is preferred, especially for the large-scale versions.

Figure 56: SurveyQ. 7: Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best complemented by the background map. - Choice of network + GSD-Fastighetskartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2.

54 Figure 57: SurveyQ. 8: Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best complemented by the background map. - Choice of network + GSD-Fastighetskartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2.

Figure 58: SurveyQ. 9; Choose in which of the maps below, the network is best complemented by the background map. - Choice of network + GSD-Fastighetskartan background map design. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion 1, Version 3 = New suggestion 2.

55 The respondents where also asked to choose between two design versions where polygon border lines where clear (Figure 46) or toned down/hidden (Figure 47). In Figure 59, version 1 is the current design where the borderlines are clear. Version 2 is the new suggestion where borderlines are less significant. The majority of the respondents prefer the toned down version where the borderlines are less significant. However, several respondents think it is too hard to differ between some features, such as e.g. buildings and the surrounding built up area colour.

Figure 59: SurveyQ. 10: Choose which of the maps below has the best polygon borderlines. Version 1 = Current version, Version 2 = New suggestion.

Finally, the suggestion of priority positions for point symbol texts was brought up. That is, always placing a text on e.g. the bottom right position whenever possible and if not, choosing the second most prioritised position etc. The results can be seen in Figure 60. Most respondents consider it a good suggestion, but several, mostly employees at Digpro, see the problems. This would mean the position would be dependent on the background map so varying background maps would give a need for other positions. It is also very hard to automate. Therefore, some consider manually placing anywhere is better. Some would prefer a standard for this, but not this specific suggestion.

56 Figure 60: SurveyQ. 11; Choose what you think about using standards for text positioning for point objects such as e.g. Option 1 = Lower right side, if not suitable, use Option 2 = lower left side. etc.

4.4 Qualitative Feedback The seminar was performed with three employees at Digpro and the participants brought up a number of insights to the presented results, which are presented here. First of all, a purple background map for Primärkartan was considered to look good. The yellow-red network suggestion however made the participants react. It is clear that being used to a certain design becomes a convention itself and major changes are confusing. However, there was an agreement on the advantages of separating designs for users with different colour vision abilities. Then the yellow-red version could be used. But for users with normal vision, it is not considered the best solution. To depart from the land use convention in GSD-Fastighetskartan is also confusing and should be avoided. The fact that interviewees mentioned features and details around roads to be most important was found very interesting. A suggestion were these details are extra clarified in the maps could have been made. The design principle of varying, not only colour, but also variables such as shape was also discussed for e.g. the network cables. The evaluated map contained dashed high voltage cables. This is currently not considered a design factor for separating high voltage cables from low voltage cables, but rather just a variation of state, e.g. “in use” or “planned”. However, varying shape is a good way to increase legibility and should always be used. The results present a suggestion for making the border points much smaller in the background map Primärkartan. The seminar participants suggested the size to be even smaller. It should not be that important information. The need for reconsideration of the minimum symbol sizes and which objects are being shown at which scales was also welcomed by the participants. Even if this thesis does not present a solu- tion, it is good to highlight the issue. This applies also to the suggestion of separating municipal buildings for municipal customers and for text positions and sizes. It will be hard to automate the

57 text positions, but if it would increase the legibility, it should be brought up here. That GSD-Fastighetskartan is not considered to be as important as Primärkartan sort of sur- prised the participants. The appearance should perhaps not matter that much, but the land cover types are very important since they generate different compensations. Regarding the desired standard for network design, it should of course be possible to im- plement such a standard. One already exist for the design of maps containing various technical supply systems, SS637005. However, it would be very slow to implement and there would be lots of complaints. Today Digpro make unique adaptions for all customers. If there were a standard, Digpro would probably need to always implement the standard and recommend customers to use it. Finally, it was discussed that good design is very important. The map design contributes much to the overall experience of the application and a bad design might make the user think the entire application is bad. It should be worth to take the time to design a good visual appearance of all networks and background maps.

5 Discussion

This section discusses and analyses the entire thesis methodology, realisation and results. First, section 5.1 brings up general issues regarding the work. Then section 5.2 discusses the related work and literature study. Section 5.3 discusses the interview process and section 5.4 the map comparison. The analysing part in dpPower is discussed in section 5.5 and finally the evaluation part is discussed in section 5.6.

5.1 General First of all, the limitations constraining the research should be discussed. Whenever performing a research, disregarding size of work, time is always a critical factor. If there was no time restriction, all parts of the methodology could have been performed more thoroughly. This research is gen- erally focusing on the subject of visualisation and specifically on the design of background maps in a specific application. Digpro however has several other applications with similar functionality with the same need of evaluation. Optimally all these applications could have been analysed to aid a uniform well-defined design for all Digpro applications. However, the results have been pre- sented as a general part answering the question “What is good design?” in a manner not specified for dpPower. This part could be implemented on all map design considerations. Another import note is the limitation of scaling down the research to regarding just GSD- Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan in the dpPower network. As mentioned, customers use several background map sources, e.g. aerial photographs. Optimally, all kind of background maps would have been analysed. Further more, if there was no time constraint, since a user-centred design is critical, the Low- Fidelity to High-Fidelity iterative process could have been repeated more than just one loop. This would have given an opportunity for further adjustments in the map design after the evaluation and the process could then be repeated until the customers/users were satisfied. A very important note is the fact that only four customers participated in the research. The goal was to include six customers of varying size and experience of dpPower to represent the entire user group. However, also six customers are quite few and four even less. Since two did not participate, the planned distribution of interviewees was broken, e.g. the two largest customers with the most users were

58 also the interviewees with the most experience and suggestions for improvements giving them the largest influence of the results. This should be avoided, even though in this case, most intervie- wees had the same point of views and the results is not only based on interviews, but also related work and map comparisons. The changes of colour settings in the maps and networks were made primarily with the con- sideration of the Red-Green deficiency, even though there are several other deficiencies. This was based on the fact that Red-Green is by far the most common deficiency but naturally, a Barrier- Free design should be adapted for all users. This motivates the suggestion of creating separate map designs optimised for users of different visual abilities. These different designs should be easy to switch between in the application, which should be easily achievable in a GIS. Some of the design principles were based on related work made by . It should be noted however, that many of his thoughts considers design of graphs presenting data. But many of his ideas are general and applicable to map design as well. Therefore, his ideas were used, but they should be considered with caution. This study focuses relatively much on the design perspective, but more should perhaps have been focused on the user-computer interaction issue. Since humans and computers are not well cooperating, there is a need to understand how the design is actually reached out to the user via the display. In addition, many users will have different types of displays with different resolution, size and brightness settings. This will affect the experienced visual appearance of the design and to be able to optimise the design for all users, one would need to examine the design on all types of displays. Some thoughts about minimum object sizes in dpPower have been mentioned in the results. It should be clarified however that this information is based on an overview of the application, rather than a thoroughly study of object size on different zoom levels and viewing distance. The results also bring up the suggestion of a priority system for placing texts belonging to point objects. This would be a very hard to make the application perform automatically in a good way since new objects will be added, which might disturb current texts. What actually is important information in the background also varies from location to location. If the priority system would be implemented, it would probably be just a rule of thumb for the person manually drawing the objects. The interviewees brought up also the fact that municipalities and Lantmäteriet are not well synced, presenting different kinds of data and updating at different times. This means that the customers both have to gather data from different distributors and that this data is not coherent. A desire is for the authorities to collaborate with a unified management of data so there would only be one distributor of data. Optimally, the data would also be combined into one single background map adapted for both city areas and the countryside. Perhaps with the key features of GSD- Fastighetskartan as a small-scale foundation and more detailed information from Primärkartan available over city areas, in larger scales. Another user-input was that the map design must be easily changed, which agrees with the principle of having interactive systems. However, some interviewees considered the change pro- cess to be too complicated. A specific tool for both change of drawing attributes and for symbols is used. The interviewees were used to less steps in changing attributes, e.g. just right-click and change. It should be noted however that they had quite little experience in dpPower and map design overall. More experienced users did not mention this issue. The thesis also analyses text sizes. This was done primarily for the background maps, but texts also occur in the network. Those texts positioning was mostly discussed, but not much the

59 size. Thus, the presented map design suggestions contained a number of texts that sometimes were, not only badly placed, but also too small on the visualised scale.

5.2 Related Work The related work brought up in section 2 is being the foundation for many design considerations and change suggestions in this thesis result. It should be noted that these principles and tips are not based on new study material specified for this thesis. It is based on studies by other researchers throughout many years. Of course, all relevant literature has not been studied. It is possible some missed related work would have brought up other perspectives and design principles interfering with those brought up here. Some material might also be relatively old and new researches might have been made later with other results. For example, the consideration of 8% of men and 0,4% of women suffering from Red-Green colour vision deficiency is based on a study by Birch from 1993. Since then, probably both technology and the distribution of colour vision deficiencies have changed enough to give a different result if tested today. The thesis topic is also a lot about interactive visualisation on digital displays and thus treats a subject undergoing fast development. In just a few years of research, previous material might be out of date.

5.3 Interviews To include customers/users in the design process and aid the user-centred design approach, a choice of how to collect user inputs had to be considered. In this case, there was a need for a deeper understanding how the users use dpPower, what background maps they use, for what purposes and why and specifically, what could be improved. Therefore a qualitative data collec- tion method was chosen and interviews were performed in a semi-structured way to direct the discussion into pre-chosen topics. Optimally, the interviews should have been performed person to person and with a display of dpPower present. In this case, since the customers are located on various locations around the country, the interviews were performed via phone meetings and notes were made all along that were later rewritten into plain text. Another solution could have been to record the interviews to make sure no information was missed or forgotten.

5.4 Map Comparisons The map comparisons were made towards three different map types, which were chosen since they are commonly used. None of the maps has the purpose of being used together with an electrical network but could still be analysed as being well-defined designs. It should be noted that the maps were just overviewed rather quickly, much more time could have been spent on comparing varying map features.

5.5 Analyse in dpPower When performing the step of analysing dpPower based on the related work, interviews and map comparisons, some important notes must be made regarding the visualisation of Primärkartan and GSD-Fastighetskartan in dpPower. First of all, Digpro has defined a default appearance of the maps, which is being used when a new installation for a new customer is made. The maps Primärkartan or GSD-Fastighetskartan are not fixed maps, owned by Digpro. This is digital data, separated into different objects and is

60 bought by the customers from Lantmäteriet or the municipalities. Digpro then aids with import- ing the data and mapping it into certain pre-designed subtypes and classes with different visual appearance in the applications. This mapping might not create specific subtypes for all import features, some might be grouped into “other undefined” subtypes. This, in combination with pos- sible small variations to the original map version might cause the maps to differ slightly from the actual GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan visually. For example, the border points in the analysed version of Primärkartan were classified as “other undefined” given the appearance of that symbol. If separated into a specific subtype, they might have had another design. The analysing part performed in this thesis was also performed on a copy of the demo version of dpPower, where eventually some defects could be identified making it not an exact copy of the default version. For example texts for house numbers in Primärkartan were visualised larger than default. There was not possible to change this text size and therefore those texts were hidden from the resulting images. However, this is information mentioned as important by the customers and it should remain in the map, still with similar design considerations as for all texts. No unnecessary interference with other, more important objects. The same applies for border point texts. According to the results, they should be placed either completely inside or outside the object and thus they should be moved. But those texts could not be moved and no image presenting this design consideration was brought up in the results. Another problem is the fact that far from all existing features in Primärkartan were present in the study area Stora Essingen. Therefore, only a very few features could be analysed. This further motivates the result to include a general section of “What is good design?” since it can later be applied to non-analysed features. Another relevant note is that the meaning of Primärkartan is quite vague among the customers. It might be known as Baskartan or other local names depending on the municipality. The munic- ipalities also deliver several different types of data and the customers might group all together to municipality data. It should be noted also that GSD-Fastighetskartan was analysed as complement to the network on Stora Essingen, which is a city area. From customers, it was clear that the map is used as back- ground information on the countryside. Optimally, another study area would have been examined also for GSD-Fastighetskartan. However, Stora Essingen contain land features significant for the countryside as well, such as e.g. water, forest and open land. Therefore, the study area could be used anyway but with caution regarding the built up areas. It can also be mentioned that aerial photographs are used to get a better understanding of certain areas. Even if the background maps are quite detailed and present lots of information, an aerial photograph is still the best key to understand the actual surroundings and circumstances on a location. As brought up, customers have implemented individual adaptions of the dpPower design to fit their preferences and needs better. Some of these changes were made many years ago and the map appearance might vary rather much from the default version and also between different customers. The interviewees brought up the desire for a national standard for map design of electrical networks. If colour schemes and designs were fixed and equal for all users, it would be easier to adapt the background maps to fit that specific design. But a fixed network design would not allow optimum combination with all background maps and the simple fact that customers have different designs tell that preferences vary. So what would actually be a good design for a standard? Still, a standard would spare the customers from a time consuming job of defining their own design. Even if a change to a new standard would probably be a very slow process, which

61 would take a long time to adapt to. When considering what information should be shown and what should not, it is important to state that this is map design in a GIS, therefore the visualisation design is based on stored data in some database and is easily adjusted. There is never a consideration of what information should stay and what should be removed. It is a consideration of what should be shown and what should be hidden. The hidden information can always be unhidden on-demand, if the user wishes so. dpPower will naturally always contain lots of line features. As brought up, lines force the eye the move in the direction of the line, which makes the it hard to focus on points in dense areas of the network. This is perhaps not avoidable since the very presence of the lines is not a design issue but just a presentation of where the lines are located. It should however be easy to hide the line features when there is a need to consider point features in dens network areas. This functionality already exist in dpPower.

5.6 Evaluation When it comes to the testing part, naturally the evaluation would have been better if more partic- ipated. The survey was distributed to three test groups, users of dpPower, GIT-students with no experience of dpPower and users with no experience of GIT or dpPower. This was done to try and cover also a user group of potential future dpPower users. Map design is also not just an issue for GIT-students or dpPower users. Therefore a test group with no experience was included. The survey was distributed via mail and social medias to e.g. a group of former GIT-students at KTH. This increased the number of respondents belonging to another test group or combinations of two test groups. Some were employees at Digpro with knowledge about dpPower but were not users. Some were GIT-students with experience of dpPower and some were currently using dpPower but had no previous experience. Perhaps the test groups could have been divided into more specific groups. Still, the feedback and diversity among the respondents was most important. Optimally all potential end-users would have been included. Perhaps the survey could have been distributed to all customers and their users. The seminar would optimally have included also the interviewees. Now, they only took part in the quantitative survey. More participants overall in the seminar would have been good to get more inputs. When analysing the survey results, there are several interesting factors to highlight. First of all, many respondents belonged to the test group Other The fact that these respondents where reached was probably due to the distribution of the survey via social media. One group of current and former GIT-students at KTH received the survey and several of these are now working at Digpro. Some of the current GIT-students are also working at Digpro and therefore might have some experience of dpPower. It should also be noted that the two respondents with a Red-Green deficiency were both em- ployees at Digpro. It would have been good with colour vision impaired respondents without dpPower experience as well. The two respondents also mentioned they have generally good vi- sion, which is highly dependent on type of display and light conditions. The first question regarding the Primärkartan background map could have been better formu- lated. Instead of just asking for visual significance, the question should have asked for advantages and disadvantages with the two designs. Now, some responded that the purple version was less significant, but also commented that they preferred the current blue version since it was clearer. This indicates that a change to purple works but the design should not be too toned down or trans-

62 parent. The individual lines should still be clearly visible, even if it does not interfere with the network. Since the evaluation dislikes the yellow-red version, a use of it should reconsider a number of factors. The combination with white should be avoided so Primärkartan would need to have another primary tone. The yellow and red also appeared too bright in the new suggestion. If used, this should be considered. This means that there is a foundation for separating map designs adapted for different users, but using yellow instead of green for Red-Green impaired might not be the best solution. Also for GSD-Fastighetskartan the majority prefers the green and red network in a combi- nation with a toned down background, which keeps the land use convention. It should be noted that the new suggestion changed the colour for built up area from orange/brown to grey/purple. Another suggestion could have been a slightly pink version, which would have avoided the con- fusion with convention of industrial area being grey. But as seen in the map comparisons, grey is sometimes also used for built up area and that convention is not as strong as the rest. The buildings in the built up area were now coloured much like their surroundings and with less dis- tinct borderlines. The buildings should have been made clearer, either with different colour use or more distinct borderlines.

6 Conclusions

This thesis has presented a general description of how to achieve good design. This knowledge has furthermore been implemented on the design of the background maps GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan to be used together with networks in dpPower. The objective was to answer if there was a more suitable map appearance that better complemented the usage of dpPower. This question can be answered by: Yes, the map design could be improved. Several new suggestions for map appearance have been brought up. However, the evaluation shows some of these consid- erations are good while some could be reconsidered. Therefore, the conclusion of the new map design suggestion is to implement the general description of “What is good design?” but to also consider the user feedback from the evaluation. Another conclusion is to use separate designs optimised for users of different visual abilities. There will not be a design suitable for all users. The final conclusion is that this thesis present several good principles and map design sug- gestions, but to ensure a good result, the process should be continued with the design process based on the evaluation, followed by another evaluation etc. This iterative process could be made infinitely long, but at least a few loops longer would probably improve the results rather much.

7 Future Work

The work presented in this thesis could be used for further research in relevant fields that were not brought up here. First of all, the issue regarding minimum symbol sizes was just briefly discussed. For dp- Power, this should be thoroughly analysed and no object should be visualised in too small scales. There is no need for showing information if it cannot be interpreted. The information will just disturb other information.

63 The brought up desire for one single background map from one single distributor to cover user needs in both cities and on the countryside could be analysed thoroughly. The issue was just brought up in this thesis and an example of combining GSD-Fastighetskartan and Primärkartan was mentioned. However, this design would need lots of consideration and probably a new user input collection. Since this thesis has just completed one single loop in the user-centred design, future re- searchers could also continue directly from this thesis results and restart a new iterative loop of design and evaluation. For example, the critical views on the yellow colour in networks, also from Red-Green impaired users, could be implemented in new design suggestions. Perhaps, more map features could also be analysed. This would be possible if there was more time and test data available. The thesis also suggests a separation of map designs for users of different visual abilities. This issue could be much more analysed. E.g. how many different designs should be used? How should these designs be formulated in detail? This has only been suggested in this thesis and primarily for users with normal vision and Red-Green impairment. As mentioned, especially the suggestion for Red-Green impaired could be improved based on the evaluation. The implementation of a national standard for electrical networks is also a possible further research area. Should it be used? How should it be designed? Users desire a standard but it would cause several difficulties. Users with preferences satisfied by individual adaptions today would have to adapt to a new design that would probably not be preferred.

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[63] Data Visualization, Design and Information; No date. [homepage on the internet]. [Accessed 2017 May 24]. Figure 2. 15-Color Palette for Color Blindness. Available from: http: //mkweb.bcgsc.ca/biovis2012/.

[64] Jenny B, Kelso NV. Designing Maps for the Colour-Vision Impaired; No date. [homepage on the internet]. [Accessed 2017 May 24]. Figure 6 Spectral colour schemes for precipitation maps, with rainbow colours (top row) and with an improved spectral scheme (bottom row). Available from: http://colororacle.org/resources/2007_JennyKelso_ DesigningMapsForTheColourVisionImpaired.pdf.

69 TRITA SoM EX Kand 2017-21

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