Abstract: Visual encodings are the medium through which information is displayed, perceived, interpreted, and finally transferred from a visualization to the user. Traditionally, such encodings display information as representations of length, color, size, slope, position, and other glyphs. Guidelines for such encodings have been proposed, but they generally assume a small display, small datasets, and a relatively static user. Large, high-resolution visualizations are able to display far more information simultaneously, allowing users to leverage physical navigation (movement) as an effective interaction through which to explore the data space. In this paper, we analyze if and how the choice of visual encodings for large, high-resolution visualizations affects physical navigation, and ultimately task performance for a spatial information visualization task.