Case Study: Design and Assessment of an Enhanced Geographic In-
formation System for Exploration of Multivariate Health Statistics
Robert M. Edsall
Department of Geography
Arizona State University
robedsall@asu.edu
Alan M. MacEachren
Department of Geography
The Pennsylvania State University
alan@geog.psu.edu
Linda Pickle
National Cancer Institute
picklel@mail.nih.gov
Abstract
An implementation of an interactive parallel coordinate
plot linked with the ArcView® geographic information
system (GIS) is presented. The integrated geographic
visualization system was created for the exploratory
analysis of mortality data from specific cancers as they
relate, specifically spatially, to other mortality causes and
to demographic and socioeconomic risk factors. The
linked and interactive parallel coordinate plot was tested
with and compared to a similarly interactive and linked
scatterplot in usability assessments designed to assess
each representation’s relative effectiveness for exploration
of these data sets. Evidence from these studies suggests
that multivariate, spatial, and/or time series exploration is
enhanced through the use of the parallel coordinate plot
linked to maps.
1. Introduction
Epidemiologists are among the many types of research-
ers for whom the understanding of the data sets they fre-
quently use is made challenging by the multidimensional
nature of those data. This paper will report on an effort to
design and implement a visualization environment that
links a geographic information system (GIS) to custom-
designed interactive statistical representations, with the
specific conceptual goal of exploring health statistics data
of many dimensions. A two-part usability assessment,
also described here, lends support to the assertion that
multiple linked views, in particular the linked parallel co-
ordinate plot, scatterplot, and choropleth map, facilitate
the construction of knowledge about multivariate health
statistics data.
2. HealthVisPCP
The visualization environment described in this paper is
an