SMART LEGEND – SMART ATLAS!

René Sieber, Christoph Schmid, Samuel Wiesmann

Institute of Cartography
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH)
ETH Hoenggerberg
CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland
e-mail: {sieber, schmid,}@karto.baug.ethz.ch
swiesmann@gmx.ch

ABSTRACT

Atlases are moving quickly towards multimedia, three-dimensional visualization and interactive techniques. Digital
atlas maps benefit from nearly free navigation, sophisticated visualization techniques and analytical functionality.
Zooming and panning, coloring, and interactive queries are standard features nowadays. But one of the most important
features of every map – the legend – still lacks appropriate functionality and even good graphic design.
Reviewing traditional and digital map legends, seven functional components can be extracted: visualization, navigation,
analysis, dimensionality, thematic issues, general information, and layout. These seven legend components should be
considered in the design process of every interactive legend.
But we can go even a step further, by imagining and realizing smart functionality for the legend. In our new „smart
legend“ approach, the legend is defined as a central control unit of the map. We can distinguish two main feature
categories of a „smart legend“; Self-acting adaptations of the legend that aim at a preferably optimal depiction of the
map elements, and the range of user interaction features provided.

1 THE LEGEND, A CLASSIC MAP FEATURE

Traditional legends in paper maps and atlases

Map legends are traditionally appointed to explain the content of a map. According to the Kansas Association of
Mappers (2005), the legend is defined as „An explanation of the symbols, codes, names given to variables and other
information appearing on a map drawing or chart. It includes a sample of each symbol, line pattern, shading, or hatching
appearing on the map along with annotations describing the meaning of each.“ In other words, it is an important map
feature -the symbol key used to interpret a map that lists and explains all groups of map elements.

Figure 1: a) Placement of traditional map legend (population density), b) Legends with point or line raster overlay
(geology; Swiss World Atlas 2004)

On printed maps, the legend is often placed in the blank space of the map and is divided into several parts (fig. 1a). It
usually contains various legend elements: heading and labels, legend boxes or symbols to depict numerical values or
nominal classes, class units, and explanatory text.

XXII International Cartographic Conference (ICC2005)A Coruña, Spain, 11-16 July 2005
Hosted by:
The International Cartographic Association (ICA-ACI)
ISBN: 0-958-46093-0 Produced by Global Congresos
By browsing through some printed examples, we found legends with only point elements, linear features or areas, or
any combination of point, line, and area. Legends with point or line raster overlay allow further differentiation of a
certain layer (fig.1b). Sometimes, the map title and map scale, origin, orientation, and other map information are also
incorporated into the legend box. Graphically, the legend elements are designed according to the symbolization of the
elements as they appear in the map.
Advantages: Printed map legends are usually explanatory to the full extent, with the application of complex
sophisticated graphics, and a strong trend to illustrative characteristics.
Shortcomings: The placement of the legend or its parts seems to be steered by the empty space available. It is often
situated far away from the corresponding map element, and the colors are neither distinguishable nor assignable (e.g.,
geology map with hundreds of layers).

2 DIGITAL LEGENDS: HOW POWERFUL ARE THEY?

Interactive legends may be presented in two different ways (Lobben and Patton 2003); first, information about base map
and thematic elements may be imbedded in the map. Second, a static or interactive legend panel provides information in
a figurative and textual way. While the first way provides specific information about individual map elements, the
second method – using map legend panels – works in a more general sense and usually addresses groups of map
elements. In this paper, we concentrate on legends in a separate display area because of their higher potential for
visualization and analysis.

Digital legends
With digital maps and atlases on CD-ROM, DVD and on the Web, the map legend is usually treated as an „image“. The
legend is either scanned from a printed original or drawn and compiled digitally with the intention of acting as an
integrated whole. Thereby, the legends’ symbolization is often fairly good but it lacks of real interactive techniques (fig.
2a). Interactivity is reduced to some simple windows techniques, which make the legend movable, scalable, and
scrollable (fig. 2b). More complex digital legends are organized in a hierarchical structure, often accessible by means of
a pull-down menu.
Advantages: The legend as a whole is very mobile; scanned graphics are appealing.
Shortcomings: Poor graphic quality using GIS standard legends and no interaction with the map itself is prevailing.

Figure 2: a) Figurative graphics in a digital legend (Digital Wisdom 2005), b) Digital legend using window techniques
(Oakville GIS Center 2005).

Interactive legends
Real interactive legends are actually able to partly modify the appearance of the map and to perform some basic
information retrieval. Three different groups of actions can be distinguished: a) actions on embedded information in the
map, b) actions in the legend, and c) bidirectional actions.
Actions on embedded information in the map contain interactive querying by mouse rollover or clicking on the map. It
will highlight a specific map class in the legend (Miller 1999) or evoke a panel with individual map element
information. Legend information embedded in the map display may also contain sound or a day/nighttime context
(Kraak et al. 1997).
Actions in the legend will change the background of legend boxes, so that legend colors correspond to the map coloring
(e.g., when combining map colors with relief shading). With a click in a legend symbol box, the user gets text
information about the topic (fig. 3).
The interactive legend can also be structured according to hierarchy (Lobben and Patton 2003). While the first
hierarchic level includes the most general classes, the second level will reveal a subset of each class. By clicking on the
general class label or symbol this second level can be assessed.
As an additional possibility, Peterson (1999) suggests the idea of animation steering: „The legend, implemented as
explanatory boxes, provides a way both to control the animation and determine its meaning“. Square boxes or slices of a
circle are assigned to several points in time. Switching between these squares or slices allows different types of
animations. Kraak et al. (1997), also point out the exploration and interaction potential of animation processes by means
of interactive legends.
Kumar (2004) recommends frequency histogram legends for classed and unclassed choropleth maps. It may be possible
to change class intervals, class limits and schemes of classification (quantile, equal interval, equal area etc.). According
to his research, frequency histogram legends are appropriate to assess statistical distribution.
In various atlases like the Atlas of Germany (2004) and the Dutch Wereld Atlas (1999), the legend allows to modify
the map’s appearance, especially its colors and classes.

Figure 3: Amplified use of the legend symbol box (Environment Canada 2005).

Bidirectional actions are activated both in the legend and in the map at the same time. As a supplement to simple legend
boxes, a histogram of every single map value or each category, incorporated in the legend, can work in the bidirectional
way. Querying a value in the legend will show the corresponding map element and vice versa (fig. 4).

Figure 4: Bidirectionally linked frequency histogram/diagram of map values (Stopper 2005).

Advantages: The assignment of map elements in the legend is always clearly visualized, sometimes even in a
bidirectional way. The graphic appearance of the map and the classification of the data are modifiable.
Shortcomings: The legend’s graphic appearance needs to be improved, because interactive legends are in most cases
non-figurative and designed with a high degree of abstraction. The features characterized above are very often only
fundamental sketches, but are not yet running operationally in commercial products.

Interactive legend techniques in the «Atlas of Switzerland 2.0»

The «Atlas of Switzerland» is basically designed to give the user amplified active control over the visualization process.
In its second version «Atlas of Switzerland 2.0», published in November 2004, several interactive legend features have
been integrated.
Considering layout issues, the legend is designed as a permanently available fold out panel and is easily assessed by
means of a register. It therefore appears and disappears by clicking on a tab. It is forced to close if another panel is
opened claiming the same place/space. The legend module is even linked to the print module: the legend will only be
printed if the map legend is open.
The «Atlas of Switzerland 2.0» applies the dual thematic layer concept where the user can choose an additional map
layer. The legend will then be split up in two separate parts, in an active map layer and a passive map layer. To switch a
layer from passive to active, the user has just to click in the passive part of the legend. If the legend’s size exceeds the
maximum space available, the passive legend part is automatically closed, but still can be reopened and activated by
clicking on a radio-button.
Bidirectional queries are indicated by highlighting the corresponding map class in the legend while querying the
thematic elements of the active map layer.
For complex map issues like geology, with an exhaustive number of categories, a hierarchical legend has been
designed. This makes it possible to show all categories of the map at once and simultaneously focus on a specific
category (Huber and Schmid 2003).
In addition, a category selection tool is integrated in the map legend; clicking on one or more legend category or its
color boxes makes the other legend categories fade to gray (fig. 5a). This function applies on vector and raster maps and
enables the user to browse quickly through the entire data set for exploration purposes.
Finally, the legend boxes are linked with the map analysis tool. Changes of colors and number or range of classes by
means of the map analysis tool will show up in the map, and the legend is instantly updated.
In the 3D part of the «Atlas of Switzerland 2.0», a simple histogram function is already integrated in the legend. With
this fusion of legend and analysis tool it’s possible to alter coloring and classification in the legend itself (fig. 5b).

Figure 5: a) Category selection using legend boxes, b) Fusion of legend and map analysis tool in the 3D part (Atlas of
Switzerland 2.0).

Advantages: The legend’s internal interactive organization is on a high and flexible level. The tools, especially the
category selection tool and the legend in the 3D part are designed in a forward-looking way.
Shortcomings: The overall legend handling is not consistent and still incomplete; a combination of legend and analysis
tool should also be possible in the 2D part of the «Atlas of Switzerland 2.0».

A lot of good ideas and legend features have been discussed in this section. In order to get to a clearly structured „smart
legend approach“, it is now important to summarize and classify these features.
3 THE STATE OF THE ART IN INTERACTIVE LEGEND DESIGN: SEVEN COMPONENTS

The discussion of legend types and legend elements in both printed and digital maps leads to a comprehensive
compilation of the state of the art in legend design. From a pure functional rather than a historic-technical point of view,
all the features mentioned in the previous section can be reclassified by seven components: visualization, navigation,
analysis, dimensionality, thematic issues, general information, and layout (fig. 6). These seven legend components
should be considered in the design process of every interactive legend.

Figure 6: Seven components of interactive legend design.

Visualization is understood as the most important legend component. It defines how map elements or data are presented.
There may be a choice of several signatures for one variable, the size of the symbols may be varied and the color
modified. Even every other map element can be visualized in different ways.
Navigation contains mainly global information elements on navigation and orientation. In this component, any kind of
assistance to assure the spatial orientation is included, e.g., map coordinates, north arrow, scale bar, or type of
projection. Navigational tools – acting as modifier – like zooming and panning are preferably placed outside the legend.
Analysis as another important component unifies all legend elements dedicated to explore and manipulate map data.
This explorative data analysis is enabled by e.g., frequency histograms and diagrams, statistics, reclassification, data
extraction (highlighting) and data suppression (filtering).
Dimensionality in legends is understood both in a spatial and a temporal way. The spatial dimension is addressed by the
use of geometrical or figurative 3D symbols (sphere, cube, etc.) and even 3D terrain sections (block-diagrams). The
temporal dimension is applied to indicate a certain point in time or time changes. Legend elements may be designed as a
date indicator, a clock or time slider.
Thematic Issues as a further legend component summarizes all specifications that refer to the map theme. These
specifications provide supporting textual or illustrative information, such as legend labeling, map title, pictures, and
important method descriptions.
General Information contains legend elements that bear no direct relation to the map theme. e.g., authors and copyright,
list of references, and year of publication.
Layout characterizes the overall organization and settings of the legend. This component incorporates legend panel
design and graphical features (supporting or separating lines, fonts, etc.) as well as technical specifications (placement,
dispersion or nesting of legend parts).

It’s important to mention that many of the seven components can interact at the same time. Likewise it may not be
necessary to involve all components completely. The components are not mutually exclusive, but supporting. The
relevant components among them should always be included when organizing a legend.
4 THE „SMART LEGEND“ APPROACH

As we have seen, there is more power in map legends than they commonly reveal nowadays. How can we profit from
the new possibilities of digital legends? What makes a legend smart? In our new smart legend approach, the legend is
defined as a central control unit for all visualization and data exploration aspects of the map. For that we choose visuali-
zation, analysis, thematic issues, general information and layout from the seven legend components to be contained in
our approach. Navigation and dimensionality therefore need to be handled in other tools. For our Smart Legend Center
we distinguish two main feature categories: a) The self-acting adaptations of the legend that aim at a preferably optimal
depiction of the map elements, and b) the range of user interaction features provided.

Self-acting adaptations of the legend

The aim of these smart features is a preferably optimal, clear and comprehensible depiction of the map content. The
legend adapts its shape, appearance and content to various conditions, e.g., to scaling and repositioning for different
purposes like screen display or printing, or to various layer set-ups. The result then basically should look like a high
quality, hand-made paper legend that was specially crafted for this particular map display.

Some notions on such adaptations may include:

- An adaptive legend could adjust its content to include only symbol categories that actually appear on the map
(TempusMUD 2004). The legend then updates itself constantly according to navigation.
- Since the legend should help the user interpreting the map, the depictions in the legend should look as similar
to the actual map items as possible (fig. 7). For this purpose, the symbols can be combined with the current
map layers (e.g., a shade relief, base maps or other thematic layers).
- As we have seen, on paper maps the legend is usually placed at a suitable position where it does not come into
conflict with map information. There is no such general ideal legend placing on dynamically generated digital
maps. Thus the legend must be able to adapt its size, position, orientation and design according to the current
map view’s demands.
- The arrangement of the legend information is basically given by the map structure. But the user’s focus on
certain objects and the lack of interest in others could reflect in a matched symbol composition.

Figure 7: Self-adapting legend boxes according to base map elements.

User Interaction
The biggest innovation of digital legends is the ability to handle user interaction. Crampton (2002) distinguishes four
interactivity types: interaction with (1) the data representation, (2) the temporal dimension, (3) the data, and (4)
contextualizing interaction. Of specific interest regarding smart legends are interactions with the data representation like
rescaling and remapping symbols, and interactions with the data. Among this higher level of interactive tasks is data
extraction (highlighting) and suppression (filtering), where the user identifies a subset of data to highlight or exclude
from visualization.
Some potential interaction features for smart legends:
- A basic form of smart legend interaction is the transfer of additional information corresponding to the current
user actions, e.g., highlighting the depiction of the map item the user is querying.
- The most obvious feature would be the possibility to affect the symbolization of the map elements, i.e. change
their shape, size, color and classification. In this way the user can customize the map to match his needs and
preferences. Legends provide a way of adjusting visualization parameters by acting upon the visualization
itself (Tudoreanu and Kraemer 2001). For many users this would be a fast and intuitive way of changing the
data representation.
- An interactive legend may also allow the user to perform more complex queries by selecting the scope (layers,
classes, area etc.) for information retrieval, e.g., it could display an analysis of all data for a selected class or
area (localization). Or the user could highlight certain classes or symbols of interest on the map by selecting
the corresponding legend depictions.
- Another common task is to select the map content from a set of base and thematic map layers. This could also
contain basic manipulations like modifying the layer blend or selecting layers for queries.
- Selected items could be highlighted on the map or all unselected items could be masked out.
- Extending the idea of the self-acting adaptations, where the legend adjusts its content according to the current
map, the user could interactively add content to the legend and remove or rearrange items, e.g., by dragging
items from the map to the legend panel or moving them to a recycle bin. In the beginning, there could even be
a completely empty legend basket, to be filled with item symbols of interest for the user, giving him the
possibility to create his own map legend from scratch (fig. 8).

Figure 8: User defined legend using a legend basket.

We thus propose not only to use the new interaction possibilities but also to create a new Smart Legend Center. This
center implies the classical legend plus tools for information retrieval and display, visualization adjustments and map
content selection. It offers visualization manipulation on a WYSIWYG basis, i.e. all changes are immediately reflected
in the legend.
Our Smart Legend Center consists of two parts. First we have a depiction of the map content that can be displayed in
different views: as classic legend, diagram or histogram (fig. 10). This part also contains thematic and general
information, e.g., the layer title, units etc. It is also used for the selection of items and classes. This selection is the base
for all toolboxes that build the second part of the control center, consisting of multiple optional tool panels that can be
docked to the legend view. One possible panel could include symbolization tools like a color picker, a transparency
slider, shape catalogs, size changers etc. Another panel could be used to provide tools for changing classifications, i.e.
adding and removing classes, normalizing classes and many more. Focusing the map display on the selected items or
classes through highlighting, filtering or locating could be the subject of yet another toolbox. Finally a panel could
provide statistical information for all map data as well as for the given selection. These toolbox panels basically
correspond to the legend components we chose to integrate into our approach: visualization, analysis, thematic issues
and general information. The fifth component, layout, is contained implicitly in the legend center.
Figure 9: Map Control Center: a) Classic legend view with options closed. b) Histogram view with statistics options
open.

Figure 10: Map Control Center: Diagram view with symbolization and classification options.
With this approach, combining automatic adaptations and user interaction, all visualization information, querying tools
and data manipulation is at the user’s fingertips giving him an intuitive access to even complex tasks. Even though the
legend becomes a powerful multipurpose tool with our approach, care must be taken not to mix components of digital
maps that don’t belong together, e.g., not to mix navigational tasks or thematic choices with map visualization.

5 FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

Map makers are always confronted with users having different intentions for map use. Digital maps and atlases
applying interactive techniques and providing easy-to-use tools are best suited to deal with these demands. In future, the
map content and its visualization generally get more complex. The more extensive the map content and its visualization
gets, the more flexible the user interface and the tools have to be designed. The legend as an important element both of
the user interface and the map is forced to be more versatile. One could even think of highly interactive multivariate or
3D legend. This principle of maximum versatility allows for the creation of a customizable graphical legend in a layout
using a set of tool containers.

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