Exploring Geological Map Usability Through Sequence Chart Visualization

The paper presents a detailed analysis of how geological maps are read and interpreted differently by experts in geology and those new to the field. It primarily focuses on three eye-tracking experiments. The first experiment employs a remote eye-tracker to evaluate user reading of scans of geological maps presented on the screen. In the second experiment, the usability of the Czech Geological Survey’s (CGS) online map application was also evaluated using a remote eye-tracker. In the last experiment, paper geological maps were used as stimuli, and eye movement data were recorded using eye-tracking glasses. Participants in the study were categorized into three groups: geologists, geographers, and geoinformatics professionals. Recorded data were visualized using a newly developed open-source online tool called GazePlotter to visualize sequence charts. A variety of experiments helped us to showcase the possibilities of GazePlotter. Findings indicate that geologists tend to concentrate more on the map content than the other groups and generally spend less time completing tasks. The study also uncovers several usability issues within the CGS online map application.