Visualizing COVID-19 information for public: Designs, effectiveness, and preference of thematic maps

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has affected human lives at all levels. Maps visualizing this pandemic have become a valuable tool for public to retrieve and understand the situation in their areas of interest. Some earlier maps visualize information at the level of country or state in the United States, but viewers could not access information at a finer level such as county. Motivated by the necessity of visualizing information at a finer level, this study designs a thematic map displaying confirmed COVID-19 cases at the county level in the State of New York. The thematic map utilizes a choropleth design with defined data classification and colors for symbolization. This study then evaluates this designed thematic map with two other published maps: one from the New York State Department of Health and one from The New York Times. The evaluation collects 147 valid responses from public all over the world. Results show that choropleth design yields higher accuracy of map understanding. In addition, the designed map in this study receives higher preference among participants. This study suggests the importance of understanding the data, readers, and mapping purpose in the decision of data classification and symbolization in map design, as it contributes largely to the effectiveness of map interpretation.

Automated summary

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic has affected human lives at all levels, and maps have become a valuable tool for public to retrieve and understand the situation. This study designed a thematic map displaying confirmed COVID-19 cases at the county level in the State of New York, which was preferred by participants and yielded higher accuracy in map understanding compared to other published maps.