> Returning to the topic at hand. I question if animation is necessary to > convey temporal dimensions in a data set.
Of course it isn't necessary. But as Bertin states "In cartography, the geographic component occupies the two planar dimensions" - that is, we understand maps because they reserve position in the graphic for representing position in space. This can be extended to time - we understand animated maps because the time position in the animation corresponds to the position in time-space. Otherwise, we have "spatio-temporal cartograms". > Temporal data can be presented as a series of small multiples, a la Tufte: But this example doesn't demonstrate how the storm cloud builds as it moves across geographic space - just it's change over time. The advantage of this graphic is it allows the viewer to see more than one time instance at the same time. But that is a distortion of time which you cannot have without sacrificing other components of the illustration. > Alternatively, something as simple as making use of a browser's scroll bar > can also convey temporal changes: So can drawings in the corner of the pages of a book. That just uses the scroll bar to manipulate the animation. -Eric _______________________________________________ Geowanking mailing list [email protected] http://geowanking.org/mailman/listinfo/geowanking_geowanking.org
