Speaker: Sara Fabrikant

University of Zurich

Daily, millions of citizens make time critical and societally relevant decisions on the go supported by smart, mobile, assistive geographic information technology. However, how should the mobile geographic information display of the future look like to avoid, what others have coined, “technological infantilizing of society”, that is, the reduction of our capacity to still make wise decisions without smart technological assistance?

I will highlight ongoing empirical research on human and context responsive geographic information displays used in the lab and in the wild, capitalizing on ambulatory human behavior sensing methods (i.e., eye tracking, galvanic skin response, and EEG measurements). Based on collected empirical evidence and supported by cognition and vision theories we are guiding the process of designing smart, human, task, and context responsive geographic information interfaces for wise decisions of the future digital society.

Bio: Professor Sara Irina Fabrikant leads the Geographic Information Visualization and Analysis (GIVA) group at the Geography Department of the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Her research and teaching interests lie in geographic information visualization and geovisual analytics, HCI, and dynamic cartography.