NACIS 2026

What Do Young Adults Think About Mobile Thematic News Maps?
Lily Houtman, Penn State University
Data journalism is one of the key ways the public encounters mobile thematic maps. There is emerging research on how to best design mobile maps for data journalism, but most of these studies focus on the map producers rather than map audiences. Here, I present the results from a series of focus groups to assess how audiences feel about a variety of design decisions. Specifically, these focus groups consisted of young adults audiences, due to concerns from data journalists that young people are not reading the news. Here, I present a summary of audience opinions related to interactivity, mobile design, map personalization, and thematic map type.

Under Pressure: How Stress Impacts the Map User
Bill Limpisathian, NeuroCarto Research Group, UW Cart Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Brynn D. Patrello, NeuroCarto Research Group, UW Cart Lab, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Maps are often used in times of stress, yet we know very little about how a user’s psychological state shapes their map use. To fix this, we investigated how acute psychological stress influences cartographic interaction, including task performance and map perceptions. We used the proven Maastricht Acute Stress Test to induce stress in map users and compared their performance to a non-stressed control group. In this talk, we will discuss our findings and highlight what cartographers should do to cope with designing maps for stressful situations.

Giving attention to ADHD in cartography and visualization: design guidelines informed by a review and user study
Ab Mosca (they/them), Smith College
Heather Rosenfeld (they/she), Smith College
There has been surprisingly little research on the interplay between neurodivergence and usability of maps and general visualizations. This project begins to address this gap, particularly focusing on people with ADHD. We reviewed extant academic and professional research and guidelines on accessible cartography and data visualization in terms of their applicability to ADHD map/visualization users. Informed by this and by preliminary interviews with ADHD folks, we developed a user study. The study focuses on tactile mapping, a technique primarily studied for its usefulness to blind and visually impaired communities, but which we hypothesize also has promise for neuro-accessibility. Informed by our literature review and study results we present preliminary recommendations for ADHD-friendly map and visualization design.

Trust in Maps: A mixed-methods cartographic user study
Amelia Rudolph, Pennsylvania State University
Dr. Meghan Kelly, Syracuse University
Dr. Carolyn Fish, University of Oregon
User studies have emerged as a cartographic method particularly well-suited to analyze visual stimuli hosted online like digital and interactive maps. We ask: Does map trust vary between base map (i.e., vector-base maps and raster-base maps) and map types (e.g., reference maps and thematic maps)? We test these variables across two map locations resulting in a 2x2x2 between-subjects factorial study design. In our evaluation, we expand Prestby’s (2024) quantitative MAPTRUST assessment by including supplemental qualitative questions. From our results, we argue for continued evaluations of map trust through mixed methods approaches.

Making vivid maps: Expressive Geovisualization for Representing Spatial Vulnerability
Zhaoxu Sui, GeoGraphics Lab, Penn State
Cartographic representations of spatial vulnerability are used to explain key challenges in environment and health. Vulnerability maps can help us understand threats to people and the environment. They are often used to drive decision-making to create effective interventions. In this paper, we review existing approaches for static cartographic methods for representing vulnerability and we propose a new method called Expressive Geovisualization (EG) which employs visual representation methods that reflect the real-world context of thematic geospatial data. EG is designed to have visual impact that ensures vividness beyond traditional cartographic representation methods. We evaluate this new method through a user experiment comparing it with traditional approaches to characterize their potential utility and usability.