An Interface to Search Human Movements Based on Geographic and Chronological Metadata

Historians and scholars can better understand historic events by studying the geographic and chronological activity of individuals who witnessed them. A lack of adequate tools to help users study these activities can hinder the process of learning and discovery. In this paper we present an interface to address this problem that contains three components: a map, a timeline, and a text representation of a survivor’s movements. These components simultaneously provide query input (where users can specify their needs) and dynamic results display (where users can immediately see the effect of their decisions). The results of a pilot study show that users reacted positively to the interface.