Improving map reading with gaze-adaptive legends

Abstract

Complex information visualizations, such as thematic maps, encode information using a particular symbology that often requires the use of a legend to explain its meaning. Traditional legends are placed at the edge of a visualization, which can be difficult to maintain visually while switching attention between content and legend. Moreover, an extensive search may be required to extract relevant information from the legend. In this paper we propose to consider the user's visual attention to improve interaction with a map legend by adapting both the legend's placement and content to the user's gaze. In a user study, we compared two novel adaptive legend behaviors to a traditional (non-adaptive) legend. We found that, with both of our approaches, participants spent significantly less task time looking at the legend than with the baseline approach. Furthermore, participants stated that they preferred the gaze-based approach of adapting the legend content (but not its placement).