Towards evaluating the effects of visualization and task types on urban planning decisions

This study compares visualization types, i.e., 3D, 2D, Oblique 3D, and Combined 2D+3D, coupled in a pairwise fashion for different tasks and scenarios, and investigates their influence on decision-making across selected urban planning tasks. Specifically, we study site selection, scenario selection, and distance estimation as a baseline task which is relevant in both. In a controlled user study with 40 participants, we evaluate whether visualization type affects decision outcomes and distance estimation, complemented by participants’ visualization preferences before and after the experiment. The results confirm the previously well-documented evidence that participants are considerably more successful with distance estimation with 2D visualizations, and offers new evidence that decisions are affected by the examined visualization and task types. We observe that each visualization type exhibits distinct strengths depending on the task. These findings indicate that visualization choice in urban planning should be adapted to the task and context rather than treated as an interchangeable artifact.