Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
experience, trustworthiness and user expectations concerning the use of trust
cues in Web GIS. Although participants thought that the system was not
transparent, it was found that perceptual attributes (source and its reputa-
tion) had a stronger influence in the formation of trust perceptions. The
same finding was also observed in another evaluation with ten non-expert
users using the Spatial Decision Support System
“Where to dispose of
Britain's nuclear waste”
(nuclear SDSS) by Leeds University. The strong
influence of the perceptual attributes found in both tests contradicts previ-
ous studies, but the participants' sample size was too small to draw any
conclusions. Moreover, trust has both cognitive and affective dimensions,
and Skarlatidou et al., (2010b) did not investigate affective trust, especially
in relation to colour.
The strong impact of colour on emotions is widely recognized. For example,
red has been associated with excitement and green with relaxation but also
guilt (Ballast, 2002). Emotional responses to colour are highly influenced
by contexts of use (Valdez and Mehrabian 1994). Colour can enhance how
information is conveyed on maps and trigger emotional responses (Jones
2010). Colour can either help or hinder map readers to extract specific
details from a map and interpret general patterns (Brewer et al. 2004); the
wrong colour scheme can result in seeing patterns that do not exist or miss-
ing patterns that do. An interesting example is George Arkell's Map of
Jewish East London from 1901 (Vaughan 2007) where as a result of the
colours used, the Aliens Act of 1905 was introduced to reduce Jewish
immigration. Misleading the map reader through colour can reduce trust in
the information and is thus an important element of cartographic design.
Kim and Moon (1998) studied e-banking interfaces, and they reported that
the main clipart and overall colour layout of the interface affected the
perceived trustworthiness of the website, as some colours conveyed trust-
worthiness (e.g. cool and pastel colours, low brightness). This finding has
not yet been tested in the context of Web GIS, where colour can play an
important role on the perceived maps' trustworthiness.
3- Methodological approach
Three studies were conducted in order to investigate:
