| Designing maps that deliver a positive user experience is among the highest goals for both educators and practitioners of Cartography. Web cartographers successfully have paired the traditional focus within Cartography on representation design with tenets of interaction design drawn from the fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering. Yet, good web map design requires an understanding of the available technologies suited for the job, as well as the technical skills needed to implement these technologies. In this sense, development must serve design. Unfortunately, the technical demands of development can impede good web map design, particularly for students at a novice level or those lacking a strong programming background. This dissertation addressed this problem by researching how we learn, practice, and teach web mapping within the current web development environment. |
