Usability as an approach to Designing Web based GIS applications
How are we to make sense of such a broad and varied group of potential users? Some of them
have a technical connection to map data that might make it possible and efficient to bring them
into the GIS fold by training them in current conventions of GIS software. However, if this is the
extent of the commitment to spreading the utility of GIS, then the scope of our ambition falls far
short of the opportunity in front of us. To overstate the obvious, maps have been around for
along time and the vast majority of those who work with them on a daily basis have no direct
connection to GIS generated maps and attribute data. Beyond those who work directly with maps
there are countless others who work within some kind of mapping paradigm, in no small part
because maps are a powerful metaphor for organising all manner of spatial concepts. Clearly, if
we are to extend GIS capabilities to this wide and capable population, then we must be prepared
to embrace design techniques that transform digital mapping into something that looks and feels
natural to those who want to work with it, no matter what their technical background or working
environment.
Usability engineering is one design approach that is based on the assumption that design
immersed in the context of use has a very great potential for developing software that will reflect
the reality of use. Put simply, the idea is that the software needs to first adapt to already
productive work practices if it hopes to enhance efficiency and productivity. While Usability has
often been included as a part of the software development process (particularly in the design of
user interfaces), the sheer complexity of traditional development practices determined that
representative user groups were either very specifically defined, or were generalised to an
extreme. The growing family of programming languages created for the Web have shifted the
field of user based design in dramatic fashion. It is now possible to make changes in the look,
feel, and functionality of applications almost overnight. Further, it also seems possible to develop
design standards that adapt the front end of software directly according to use patterns. For that
matter we can put fundamental design decisions directly in the hands of individual users who can
immediately evaluate the results of their decisions based on subsequent task completion.
User involvement in design not only promises the maintenance of productive work practices, but
it invites user acceptance of new technology by including them as de facto members of the
software development team. When new software blends almost seamlessly with existing work
flow, there is the potential that instead of user resistance, users will exploit new software
functionality to improve productivity in the specific context of individual use.
This paper recounts the development of a browser-based GIS viewer. The design process
included a relatively detailed Usability component. The methodology employed is described and
evaluated. This is followed by a discussion of the role that Usability has played in the ongoing
conceptual and technical development of this particular product and then concludes with some
thoughts about how the opportunity of Web-based GIS demands a rethinking of current industry
wide development practices and the relationship between core software manufacturers, resellers,
and clients.
In the spring of 1999, Pacific Alliance Technologies of Vancouver began work on a browser-
based viewer for the second largest Canadian telecommunications enterprise. The goal was to
develop a simple, effective and cost efficient application that would make technical data
accessible to a broad range of Telus employees in widely dispersed locations. Anticipating the
challenges inherent in designing a product that would be used in so many different kinds of job
tasks, the Project Manager Bruce Campbell requested that a Usability study be included as part
of the development process. The following is a description and evaluation of the development of
iVAULT focusing primarily on the role Usability methods played in the design process.
The purpose of a Usability study is to improve system functionality by observing and consulting
with those who will ultimately use it as fundamental part of their job activities. The ideal is to
direct software development implementation, and user training, so as to realise tangible cost
benefits by tailoring the software to achieve maximum efficiency in the hands of those who use
it. The usefulness of any application can be divided into two subcategories: utility and usability.
Utility is a measure of how well the system's functionality accomplishes those things for which it
was designed. Usability looks at how well the users who actually use the system can manipulate
the functionality (Nielsen, 1993). While usability must clearly be a concern in all system design,
it become a pressing issue in the development of applications that will provide complex technical
data to users who have a limited relationship to that data, and probably no background in using
the software that has created the data.
The Product
Developed by Vancouver's Pacific Alliance Technologies, iVAULT is an innovative application
designed to serve the telecommunications industry. iVAULT takes advantage of the client-server
environment to access graphic and attribute data on demand, and publishes the information for
instant viewing and redlining via a Web browser.
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