Visualizing the Results of Interactive Queries for Geographic Data on Mobile Devices

The capabilities of current mobile computing devices such as PDAs and mobile phones are making it possible to design and develop mobile GIS applications that provide users with geographic data management and cartographic presentations in the field. However, research on how to properly support users who interact with geographic data on mobile devices is still lacking. In this paper, we present an approach to geographic data analysis that allows users to exploit interactive dynamic queries as a technique for filtering geographic information. Moreover, the proposed approach displays the results of queries through visualizations that are aimed at facing the screen estate problem typical of mobile devices. We will show how this approach can be applied to different domains by illustrating two examples of its application: (i) a decision support tool that allows tourists to search for points of interest (e.g., hotels, restaurants,...) that best satisfy their preferences and (ii) a tool allowing users to retrieve information about soil properties in a geographic area to meet a number of user’s constraints.