Cuesgeographic

Cuesgeographic is a term used in cognitive geography and geovisualization to refer to the study and use of cues that influence geographic understanding, interpretation, and decision-making. The term blends cue with geographic and denotes both the signals present in geographic representations and the mental cues people rely on when navigating and reasoning about space.

Origin and usage: Coined in the early 2010s by researchers exploring how people extract meaning from maps, diagrams, and geospatial data visualizations. It is not a formal discipline but a thematic concept used in studies of spatial cognition and cartography.

Definition and scope: Cuesgeographic covers external cues in maps (color schemes, symbols, legend clarity, spatial scale), spatial cues in the environment (landmarks, streets, topology), and perceptual cues in digital geovisualizations (3D views, animation, interactivity). The concept examines how these cues guide attention, memory, route choice, and geographic inferences.

Methods: Research in cuesgeographic commonly employs experiments with eye-tracking and think-aloud protocols; GIS analytics; user studies on map design and navigation; and computational modeling of cue salience.

Applications: The concept informs map design improvements, navigation aids, disaster response mapping, education, and virtual or augmented reality geographic interfaces.

Examples: Studies show pedestrians rely on recognizable landmarks as cue anchors; color ramps in heatmaps can shape perceived concentrations and risk zones.

Relation to other concepts: Cuesgeographic is linked to cognitive geography, spatial cognition, geovisualization, and wayfinding cues, and it intersects with human–computer interaction and cartographic design.

Critique: Challenges include measuring cue salience across cultures, avoiding overreliance on visual cues, and ensuring comparability of results across platforms and datasets.