Summary
Background and Objectives: We present a prototype visualisation tool, ADVISES (Adaptive Visualization for e-Science),
designed to support epidemiologists and public health practitioners in exploring geo-coded
datasets and generating spatial epidemiological hypotheses. The tool is designed to
support creative thinking while providing the means for the user to evaluate the validity
of the visualization in terms of statistical uncertainty. We present an overview of
the application and the results of an evaluation exploring public health researchers’
responses to maps as a new way of viewing familiar data, in particular the use of
thematic maps with adjoining descriptive statistics and forest plots to support the
generation and evaluation of new hypotheses.
Methods: A series of qualitative evaluations involved one experienced researcher asking 21
volunteers to interact with the system to perform a series of relatively complex,
realistic map-building and exploration tasks, using a ‘think aloud’ protocol, followed
by a semi-structured interview The volunteers were academic epidemiologists and UK
National Health Service analysts.
Results: All users quickly and confidently created maps, and went on to spend substantial
amounts of time exploring and interacting with system, generating hypotheses about
their maps.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the tool is able to support creativity and statistical
appreciation among public health professionals and epidemiologists building thematic
maps. Software such as this, introduced appropriately, could increase the capability
of existing personnel for generating public health intelligence.
Keywords
Epidemiology - creativity - geographic information systems - visualization - public
health
