Ego centres of mobile users and egocentric map design

Abstract

In contrast to the traditional allocentric mapmaking that strives for the communication of geoinformation in an unbiased way to diverse users, there is a growing trend of designing the so-called egocentric map, a phenomenon resulted from the rapid technical progresses and the increasing personalisation of geoservices. Some tools of egocentric map design are already available in current cartographic systems and there is an increasing awareness of their impacts on usability issues. However, personal user requirements are far from being sufficiently understood. A systematic study of methods for the detection of ego centre is missing. This chapter stresses the importance and necessity of egocentric design for mobile applications. Based on a general description of the aspects influencing the usability of an egocentric map, the author discusses different forms an ego centre may take. A number of approaches for the detection of ego centres and the subsequent design patterns of egocentric mobile maps are introduced and compared to each other. What remain open for the further development are the verification of hypotheses on ego centres and the formalisation of verified ego centres in computer languages. © 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.