In this short talk, hexbin maps -- pairing hexagonal binning with visual glyphs -- to spatially analyze the variation of game metrics are discussed. The visual glyphs allow to encode and compare multiple metrics within a single map while the regular grid produced by hexagonal binning facilitates comparisons between areas. Hexbin maps are similarly easy to produce as heatmaps while offering the above mentioned benefits. Results of a user study indicate that the maps facilitate estimation and comparison of multiple variables and that the representation remains clear and structured even for up to four variables, given that the visual encoding is appropriate. Attendees will come away with an understanding of how to create these kinds of maps and their benefits and drawbacks.
About The Speaker
Günter Wallner is Professor for Game Computing at the Johannes Kepler University Linz and holds positions at the Eindhoven University of Technology and Ontario Tech University. His research interests lie at the intersection of games user research, data analytics, and information visualization. As part of this, he is working on data visualizations to support the analysis of increasingly large-scale player behavioral datasets used in game analytics. He is editor of the 'Data Analytics Applications in Gaming and Entertainment' book.
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