Towards a Conceptual Framework for Classifying Visualisations of Data from Urban Mobility Services

Abstract

Urban mobility services generate massive amounts of raw data that are usually not explored in depth by the entities that own them. Visualisation techniques could improve knowledge extraction and decision-making, as well as support the reengineering of those services. Some studies in Information Visualisation provide a domain-independent classification for visualisations based on their own characteristics and the data they support, although independent of their context of use. We propose a classification for visualisations of urban mobility data according to their context of use and their characteristics. Our first results are encouraging and are supported by a user-centred design process carried with urban mobility experts, in which we developed and evaluated a set of visualisation prototypes. The conclusions form a first effort towards a conceptual framework proposal for classifying visualisations of this domain, and are expected to guide researchers and practitioners searching for adequate ways to visually represent their data.