Fuzzy effectiveness evaluation for intelligent user interfaces to GIS visualization

Current Geographic Information Systems (GIS) offer powerful cartographic and visualization techniques, but they do not contain the knowledge necessary to use them effectively. This gap can be closed by GIS user interfaces which help users create effective visualizations of their data. This paper introduces an effectiveness evaluation scheme supporting such intelligent interfaces. Visualization effectiveness is represented using fuzzy sets because they can express the ambiguity, fuzziness and uncertainty inherent in visualization rules. The evaluation scheme estimates the effectiveness of complex visualizations with regard to the data interpretation aims of the user. The evaluation scheme has been implemented as part of VIZARD, a system for guiding users in GIS visualization. VIZARD employs fuzzy effectiveness evaluation to support and guide users in creating 2-D visualizations of spatially-related data.