Collaborative geographic visualization: enabling shared understanding of environmental processes

We describe a prototype same-time/different-place collaborative geovisualization environment. We outline an approach to understanding use and usability and present results of interviews with domain experts about the ways in which collaborative visualization might enable groups to work at a distance. One goal for our research is to design an effective and flexible system that can support group work on environmental science research mediated through dynamic geovisualization displays. We are addressing this goal using a four-step human-centered system design process, modeled on that proposed by (Gabbard et al., 1999) for development and evaluation of virtual environments. The steps they delineate are: user task analysis; expert guideline-based evaluation; formative user-centered evaluation; and summative comparative evaluation.