Geographic data visualisation on virtual globes is intuitive and widespread, but has not been thoroughly investigated. We explore two main design factors for quantitative data visualisation on virtual globes: i)~commonly used primitives (\textit{2D bar}, \textit{3D bar}, \textit{circle}) and ii)~the orientation of these primitives (\textit{tangential}, \textit{normal}, \textit{billboarded)}. We evaluate five distinctive visualisation idioms in a user study with 50 participants. The results show that aligning primitives tangentially on the globe’s surface decreases the accuracy of area-proportional circle visualisations, while the orientation does not have a significant effect on the accuracy of length-proportional bar visualisations. We also find that tangential primitives induce higher perceived mental load than other orientations. Guided by these results we design a novel globe visualisation idiom, \textit{Geoburst}, that combines a virtual globe and a radial bar chart. A preliminary evaluation reports potential benefits and drawbacks of the \textit{Geoburst} visualisation.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445152
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