mouse tracking, mouse-movement analysis, map perception and cognition, cartographic design evaluation, cartography, Electronic computers. Computer science, QA75.5-76.95

This article aims to present the authors’ perspective regarding the challenges and opportunities of mouse-tracking methodology while performing experimental research, particularly related to the map-reading process. We briefly describe existing metrics, visualization techniques and software tools utilized for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of experimental mouse-movement data towards the examination of both perceptual and cognitive issues. Moreover, we concisely report indicative examples of mouse-tracking studies in the field of cartography. The article concludes with summarizing mouse-tracking strengths/potential and limitations, compared to eye tracking. In a nutshell, mouse tracking is a straightforward method, particularly suitable for tracking real-life behaviors in interactive maps, providing the valuable opportunity for remote experimentation; even though it is not suitable for tracking the actual free-viewing behavior, it can be concurrently utilized with other state-of-the-art experimental methods.