Research On Web Map Usability Engineering

With the Internet getting into one of everyday things, web map is becoming more and more popular. However, in this change of Internet, the leader is not the traditional GIS company (ESRI, MapInfo, SuperMap, tec.), but Internet giant (Google, Microsoft and Baidu). Why we lost our areas in this change? This confusion is indeed worthy of reflection by every cartographer. In this paper, I think there are two following reasons:1. The disadvantage of the searching. Map is needed as a platform for web map to search the whole Internet content and provide comprehensive and in-depth information for users.2. Usability is not so good. For a long time, GIS is regarded as a very complicated professional system, facing with the persons who have some specialty. However, the persons who use web map are just ordinary Internet common users. If the usability and user experience are not good, there is an invisible wall which will close the door on the most Internet users. The first reason is congenital deficiency, but the second is acquired disregard.Be all you can be. So our goal is to improving map's usability. In order to complete this goal, we have done the following work:1. We have reviewed the literature about the usability of the web map. Although the research about the usability of the web map is arising with the development of the network, the similar research about map existed previously, for example, the Map Use Research and the Cognitive Map Design Research, they come down in one continuous line. What we have done is collecting all the literature hiding in the other area of the cartography and summarizing so that the following researcher can easily master the development of the usability of the map and then consider the subject's intending evolution. And the same time, we also find there are many shortcomings and problems in map's usability research.2. We have built up the framework of the usability engineering for the web map. We point that an integrated web map usability team is composed of the team leader, interactive designer, visual designer, map designer, UI engineer, user researcher and usability expert, and we discuss the role they play in the process of the web map design and the data analysis and disposal method which are the core of the usability engineering for the web map. This framework is the subject of the whole paper and the following content spread as one or more roles of the UX team.3. Web map user research methods and practise.This work involves about user researcher and usability expert.First, we analyze the existing method of user research and come to conclusion that the biggest issue is that the cost and the swatch can't be gained at the same time. On the basis of this conclusion, we introduce the Web analyzing method and bring forward a method inosculating WA&TUR to carry through the user research. We analyze and dig the collected date by WA, market research report; questionnaire survey and user test, and come to the character and behavior habit about gender, age and education of the Chinese web map users.4. The approach of finding the web map usability issues is carried around the role of usability professionals. The core idea of this method is two things:(1) The finding of usability issues that need only a multiple iterations of usability testing which is small cost or even zero cost.The most important purpose of these tests is not to judge the program A better than program B program, but to firm the individual discretion;(2) Usability issues found must be effective, the usability issues found must be able to help improve the design, the usability issues that useless in improve the design can not be called a real usability issues found.Under the guidance of the core idea above, improving the design of note as an example to discuss the feasibility and effectiveness of this approach used in the practical of usability issues finding.5. The metrics and practice of the usability of web map is also carried around the role of usability professionals. First discuss the experimental design approach. And then we design the experimental evaluation of availability of three different combinations of zooming and panning. The results showed that use mouse wheel to zoom, drag and drop mouse to pan is the best available way. But the three kinds of combinations of zoom and pan on the performance difference is not statistically significant, only in the subjective satisfaction on the significant differences.6. An approach of prototype system design based on pattern language is built around interaction designers, visual designers and user interface engineers. The biggest problem of traditional design methods is that good design program can not be reused. This paper presents an approach of prototype system design based on the pattern language can solve the problem of reuse. Under the guidance of this approach of prototype system design, a information service delivery platform of World Expo that developed by a student received the Development Team Encouragement Award of 2010 Chinese college students contest of Esri GIS software development, and author also received the Outstanding Instructor Award of 2010 Chinese college students contest of Esri GIS software development. It proved that this method is feasibility and effective.