Creating and evaluating web-based visualizations of multi-dimensional spatiotemporal data

Abstract. In this article, we present a method for visualizing multi-dimensional spatio-temporal data in an interactive web-based geovisualization. Our case study focuses on publicly available weather data in Germany. After processing the data with Python and desktop GIS, we integrated the data as web services in a browser-based application. This application displays several weather parameters with different types of visualisations, such as static maps, animated maps and charts. The usability of the web-based geovisualization was evaluated with a free-examination and a goal-directed task, using eye-tracking analysis. The evaluation focused on the question how people use static maps, animated maps and charts, dependent on different tasks. The results suggest that visualization elements such as animated maps, static maps and charts are particularly useful for certain types of tasks, and that more answering time correlates with less accurate answers.