Are SatNavs dangerous?

The Daily Mirror recently put out a summer story on the risks of using SatNavs. While I would question the statistics and the reliability of the information, as it is probably based on a quick phone survey of 2000 people and then extrapolated in some unclear manner, I do think that we need to understand more about the tunnel vision that SatNav devices create in user’s mind.

The problem of showing a users only small section of reality without the full context is surely the right way to provide information in a short burst that does not risk them too much. While I still want to see some research on how long do users look at their SatNavs using an eye tracker (if anyone is willing to sponsor this – we’ve got the equipment!), I’m confident that there is solid reasoning behind the visualisation as it is now.

So, although this is suitable visualisation, we have an unintended consequence of tunnel vision view of the environment through which the user navigates. We are now starting to see some of the misshapes that occur due to this, and that is an area that requires more research and understanding.

See also the comments in the recent Interactions by Elisabeth Churchill about SatNav

Things that you learn at conferences…

During the Intenrnational Cartographic Conference in Moscow last August, one of the presenters, while discussing GeoVisualisation, showed the Röyksopp (2002) ‘Remind me’ clip. As it is has been so long since I’ve followed MTV, or music videos on YouTube it was the first time I had seen it…

The common comment on this brilliant videoclip is that it is about infographics. The designers of the video stated that

“as graphic designers we appreciate the way statistics can describe the whole world. It’s funny and frightening how the smallest aspect of the way we live can be translated into numbers. It also shows how predetermined our lives can seem from this point of view.”

However, there are some interesting Geographical aspects: notice how much of the information is spatial and how scale plays an important role in the transitions between different visualisation. Other Geographical notions that this video prompts are Globalisation, Western Urbanisation, the culture and geography of consumption and surely several more.

Interestingly, 3D representation is not so central and much of the information is provided through 2D representation.