GeoVisualisation of SAPO Search Activity

The objective of this paper is to report on the research inherent to the conceptualisation and prototyping of an Information Visualisation system centred on the task of conveying meaning to user interaction data collected by the SAPO Broker web service. SAPO Broker, a real-time monitoring application that collects data regarding activity within the SAPO Web Portal, collects a large set of data with the main purpose of assisting visualisation and analysis of tasks linked to georeferenced web searches performed on the portal. The research and its results where guided according to two major challenges: i) design an appropriate visual metaphor capable of appropriately integrating the collected data for a specific target audience, technology set and context of use; ii) design intuitive and relevant interaction tools able to assist this particular data analysis.