Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Cartographic and Cognitive Perspectives
on Ambulance Dispatch Displays
Antoni Moore, Jared Hayes and B. L. William Wong
Abstract This chapter deconstructs the results of cognitive and Human-
Computer Interaction (HCI) studies on the ambulance dispatcher displays in two
emergency medical dispatch centres in New Zealand from a cartographic per-
spective. This is based on the recognition that any spatial component in such
displays are not necessarily being designed with any geographic or cartographic
input in the design process. First, two reported studies on the Southern Region
Communication Centre at Dunedin were reinterpreted geographically. In rear-
ranging the dispatcher display so that the listed ambulance stations now assumed
their approximate geographical locations (a change that resulted in a significant
improvement), with linking lines (not significant), the cognitive principle origi-
nally tested, the Proximity Compatibility Principle (PCP), is intuitively geo-
graphical as well as using topological representation for effective display.
Secondly, the results of a study on the Northern Region Communication Centre
(presiding over a more complex domain), specifically the city of Auckland,
reflected the use of PCP in the context of a novel multi-layer display (MLD). This
display has an opaque back display layer (used in this case to represent background
elements) and a transparent front display layer (used to ''promote'' elements
relating to matters of urgency to the foreground). Whether considered as one layer
or two layers, the map-like display that the northern dispatchers use was a clear
