Interacting with multiple cartographic representations: the MapMuxing project

 With the development of digital maps, users (general public or a professional) have more and more to navigate between various cartographic representations (maps at different scales, with different styles, aerial orthoimages). Users may get lost when migrating from one representation to another. This is why the MapMuxing project sought to improve interaction and visualization of different cartographic displays on different kinds of display devices (computers, smartphones, tabletops, wall-sized screens). In order to improve user navigation in multiple cartographic representations, the project research focused on cartographic continuums, i.e., a stack of intermediate representations, more or less continuous, which can be used by simple interactions like zooming, or more complex ones such as lenses or animations. For instance, continuums between two scales with a strong content abstraction can enhance zooming interaction and avoid users being lost in the map. In addition to generic uses of the cartographic representations via common services such as Google Maps or the IGN geoportal, the project focused on the needs of crisis management. This use case was particularly interesting because the use of maps and images at different scales is required to achieve fast and effective decision making.