Human factors in vector map design: The importance of task-display dependence

The role of human factors in map design is to serve as a mediator between t he technology availed by electronic digital maps (particularly vector maps) on the one hand, and the many tasks performed by the user on the other. Si mply put, no one map is best suited for all tasks. The appropriate mapping of map to task is, in turn, mediated by a series of information processing principles, articulated by the engineering psychologist. The field is on th e threshold of being able to provide computational models, based on these p rinciples, that will provide guidance to the map designer as to the circums tances that make one map format better than another for a particular applic ation. This paper describes these principles as applied to two domains of v ector map design: the domain of three-dimensional maps, and the domain of d atabase overlay.