Perceptual complexity of soil-landscape maps: a user evaluation of color organization in legend designs using eye tracking

Cöltekin, Arzu; Brychtova, Alzbeta; Griffin, Amy L; Robinson, Anthony C; Imhof, Mark; Pettit, Chris

doi:10.1080/17538947.2016.1234007

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Cöltekin, A., Brychtova, A., Griffin, A. L., Robinson, A. C., Imhof, M., & Pettit, C. (2017). Perceptual complexity of soil-landscape maps: a user evaluation of color organization in legend designs using eye tracking. International Journal of Digital Earth, 10(6), 560–581. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538947.2016.1234007

Abstract

We compared the ability of two legend designs on a soil-landscape map to efficiently and effectively support map reading tasks with the goal of better understanding how the design choices affect user performance. Developing such knowledge is essential to design effective interfaces for digital earth systems. One of the two legends contained an alphabetical ordering of categories, while the other used a perceptual grouping based on the Munsell color space. We tested the two legends for 4 tasks with 20 experts (in geography-related doma