Introduction

People have long consulted maps as references for structuring and building their knowledge about unfamiliar places. Today, popular digital mapping and navigation tools (Google Maps, Yelp, Garmin, etc.) increasingly assist users with short-term decision making, from choosing a nearby restaurant for dinner to deciding on the most convenient way to travel there.

​However, when users look to digital maps for assistance in making long-term decisions, the design of such systems must accommodate more complex user behaviors and activities over longer periods of time. This study investigates how young adults decide where to live when moving to a new city, and how the design of digital maps might better facilitate this decision-making process.

Literature on decision-making theories, as well as the results of an online survey on living preferences and neighborhood-finding strategies are used as research to determine the variety of ways in which young adults make choices about where to live, and the extent to which such preferences and strategies factor into a formal process for making a decision. Additionally, case studies are conducted on existing online mapping websites commonly used. While these existing applications are able to successfully aggregate data and information about multiple neighborhoods, there is often little opportunity for users to analyze the information in relation to their own evolving preferences throughout the decision-making process.

​Hence, the thoughtful design of digital mapping and planning tools that allow users to externalize and prioritize their preferences in response to information throughout the process has a good chance of increasing a user’s engagement with such critical decisions as choosing a place in which to live.

Research Questions

PRIMARY RESEARCH QUESTION
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How can interactions with digital maps inform a young adult’s choice of a neighborhood in which to live?

SUB-QUESTIONS

• How can a system combine different data sources in ways that support decision making on the basis of ranked variables?
• How can digital maps reflect the lifestyle choices of different users?
• How can a system encourage evaluations of long-term outcomes resulting from choices of place?

Justification

After graduating from college, young adults in the United States increasingly relocate to new regions or cities. An October, 2013 USA Today article states that 8 in 10 recent college graduates are willing to move for employment (Dame, 2013), suggesting a growing tolerance for geographic mobility among the millennial generation. Further, studies indicate that within this generation, preferences for city-living (Fulton, 2012), multi-modal transportation options (APTA, 2013), and mixed-use developments (shops, restaurants, housing-types) are increasing with respect to desirable neighborhoods (Hudson, 2013).

This decision about where to move is quite complex for anyone, and often comes at a time of great transition for young adults. While finishing their academic studies, young adults also prepare to leave social networks, live with greater independence, and accrue more personal responsibilities. In addition to starting what may be their first full-time job in an unfamiliar city, recent graduates invest in housing options and personal property (such as furniture, cars and appliances), as well as new social and professional relationships. Young adults may have little experience making such consequential decisions under tight time constraints, yet choosing where to live in a new city after graduation certainly impacts their near future in many ways.

These decisions do not have to be made in isolation, however: people often rely on resources and tools while making complicated choices. We see features on web-commerce sites that allow us to filter retail results, save alternate products in a shopping cart, and compare user feedback and ratings of products before we commit to buying them. In addition to aiding the decision-making process, such features impact the user’s assessment of the information viewed. Patricia Wright, an applied psychologist at Cardiff University in Wales, suggests that the processes and tools used in making a decision can influence not only an individual’s post-decision emotions (i.e. the degree of satisfaction or regret), but also his or her perception of the quality of information gathered (Wright, 2009). She states, “...The way people make decisions can have consequences that extend beyond the decision itself. Satisfaction with the decision process may color the users’ impression of the information provider, perhaps even their assessment of the quality of the information itself,” (Wright, 2009, p. 206). Thus, it is imperative that the designers of such decision-making resources recognize the user’s affective experience throughout the entire decision-making process, and its potential impact on the user’s cognitive engagement with visualized data.

Assumptions

AUDIENCE

The audience for this project focuses on Millennial college graduates, roughly ages 21 to 34, who are looking to relocate to a new city.

FRAMEWORKS
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KEVIN LYNCH’S “IMAGE OF THE CITY”
I work under Kevin Lynch’s theory of “imageability,” in which elements of Paths, Edges, Nodes, Districts and Landmarks combine to form a mental image of a city. Through this framework, an observer builds an understanding of the human activities that take place there (Lynch, 1960). I assume that the construction of such mental models are also possible through remote, digital representations in addition to personal, on-site explorations.

THOMAS SAATY’S “ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS”
I adopt University of Pittsburgh business professor Thomas Saaty’s Analytic Hierarchy Process (Saaty, 1990) as a model of and justification for the benefit of relative preference ranking to making complex decisions.

​CHARLES SCHWENK’S “COGNITIVE SIMPLIFICATION PROCESSES”
In this thesis, I reference Schwenk’s summary of the decision-making process as having three phases, and subsequent heuristics and biases that occur as a result of the complexity and uncertainty present in large decisions (Schwenk, 1984). I accept these explanations as possible impediments to the decision-making process, and I suggest that the proposed design solutions might help counter some of these biases.

Limitations

For this thesis, I propose a series of digital map interactions for mobile, tablet-size screens that assist young adults with their decision-making process on choosing a neighborhood in which to live.
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I have scoped these investigations to be four sequentially designed prototypes, each investigating particular cognitive tasks used throughout a decision-making process. My hope is that the visualization and interaction conclusions derived from these investigations hold potential for other similar conditions in which it is necessary to communicate dynamic, place-related information for decision-making tasks.

These thesis investigations are limited to mobile, tablet-size screens. The design investigations culminate in prototypes, not fully functional applications.

Research

Explorations

Prototypes

References

See Also
RESEARCH
EXPLORATIONS
PROTOTYPES
​REFERENCES