Evaluation of Analytical Measures of Map Legibility

Abstract

The generation of maps in real-time web-services introduces challenges concerning map legibility. As these services lack the important input of a traditional cartographer, analytical measures of the legibility are called for. The aim of this study was to develop such legibility measures, and to evaluate them with the help of expert users. Measures of the amount of information, spatial distribution and object complexity were developed and evaluated. The results indicated that some of the measures could be used to describe map legibility.