An Empirical Study on The Effectiveness of Animated Cartograms

Abstract

New innovations in cartographic media and technology have enabled the development and implementation of new cartogram visualizations. The use of animation and interactive features with cartograms has become more popular recently, but very little is known about how effective cartograms with these features are in communication. Through an online survey, this study examined whether animation influences cartogram effectiveness. Traditional static cartograms with inset maps were compared to interactive and non-interactive animated cartograms. Four cartogram reading tasks were tested for each cartogram. Participants were also asked to their impressions and emotional reactions. The results show that animation and interactive animation influence cartogram effectiveness, with differing results depending on the task type.