Heuristic Evaluation of Usability of GeoWeb Sites
Usability of software belongs today to the top priorities of both managers and users of information technologies because the dependency of the majority of mankind activities on information and communication technologies in general is increasing rapidly. T
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Abstract. Usability of software belongs today to the top priorities of both managers and users of information technologies because the dependency of the majority of mankind activities on information and communication technologies in general is increasing rapidly. This requirement concerns geographic information systems in general but it principally concerns GeoWeb sites because spatial data and tools for their utilization are nowadays in great demand by end-users. GeoWeb sites can provide them an easy-to-use solution but they must be properly designed. The article describes proposal of heuristic evaluation of usability of GeoWeb sites and a case study: the proposed heuristic evaluation is applied to GeoWeb sites of all Czech regional authorities. ISO/IEC 9126 quality model is used as a framework and heuristic evaluation in according to Nielsen is used as a method for usability inspection. In the end some recommendations how user interface should be designed are proposed. Keywords: GeoWeb, Internet GIS, Web-based GIS, Usability, Heuristic Evaluation, Software Quality.
1 Introduction An increasing frequency of solving spatially oriented problems in both public and private sector is one of the reasons why accessibility of geographic information is in great demand today. Along with development of information society and increasing utilization of information for supporting decision-making processes, geographic information is more often required by the end users, like citizens, as well. Because of the special nature of geographic information special software tools are required to its treatment and analyses – geographic information systems (GIS) [17], [20], [27]. Nature of geographic data and spatial analyses allows utilization of various techniques for their treatment. Methods of artificial intelligence can be used as an example. Artificial neural network can be used to support GPS navigation by means of GPS data processing and provide map matching functionality [39]. Genetic algorithms can be used for solving the map-generalization problems [38]. The next significant problem is how to handle imprecision and uncertainty in geographic data. This is why possibility of utilization of the fuzzy set techniques for spatial data treatment and querying has been studied [15], [28]. In some cases, there can be a significant problem with some languages and their special letters and symbols too. Czech language can be given as an example [13]. J.M. Ware and G.E. Taylor (Eds.): W2GIS 2007, LNCS 4857, pp. 264–278, 2007. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007
Heuristic Evaluation of Usability of GeoWeb Sites
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But regardless of the previously shown problems, GIS have become an indispensable part of a variety of information systems used for supporting decisionmaking processes in business, public administration, and personal matters so an easy access of all potential users to geographic information and services is strongly required [6], [20], [26], [27]. Today, usability of information systems in general belongs to the top priori
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