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survey of both climate change experts and university students. The research identified the
importance of using language that matches the cognitive framework of the decision maker
in order to make the information easier to understand.
As with risk, a key barrier to the communication of uncertainty is how uncertainty is
measured, described and ultimately perceived by individuals and groups. One method or one
technique does not fit every user, situation or problem. In trying to support the integration
of uncertain information into GIS, one approach apparent in much existing uncertainty
visualization research is to develop a variety of tools and representation methods in order to
provide users of GIS with an extensive selection of alternatives for incorporating uncertainty
into their information display. An alternative (though not necessarily mutually exclusive)
approach, more similar to that taken in risk communication, is to integrate the users of
GIS early in the development process. This iterative approach requires identification of, and
access to, a target user group from an early stage. Interaction with the user group would
allow the identification of how decisions are made and what decision tasks would benefit
from uncertainty visualization. GIScientists should be responsible for adapting uncertainty
representation to the decision frames and heuristics identified during interactions with these
target user groups. Based on this interaction, initial uncertainty representation methods
would be developed and evaluated by the user group, allowing for feedback and potential
refinement of the representations. Identifying the characteristics that make an uncertainty
representation usable (and those aspects that do not) will aid in the development of usable
uncertainty visualization tools.
14.3 Uncertainty visualization: a user-centred
research agenda
Uncertainty is data- and context-dependent, but it is also very much user-dependent. In-
creasing the usability of uncertainty information in geographic visualization must be in-
formed by user-centred approaches in other disciplines to handling uncertainty. Here, then,
we propose establishing a research agenda in GIScience that places the needs, experiences
and characteristics of the user at the centre. Theories associated with this approach utilize
decision and information science research that seeks to understand the influence that con-
text and experience have on the way in which users comprehend and incorporate uncertain
information into their decisions.
In this section, we suggest several research themes that focus on making uncertainty
in geographic visualization and communication usable, helpful and productive for users.
A user-centred approach is rich with research opportunities that will serve to inform the
design of uncertainty representations to maximize their effectiveness and utility based on
the potential audience and the potential context of the representation and the analysis.
14.3.1 Different visualization designs for different levels, kinds
of expertise
Domain expertise has been a factor that has been at least discussed in many studies of uncer-
tainty communication. Expert-novice differences have been noted in visualization research
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