Jens Ingensand GIS Research Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)

transcript

Developing Interfaces for Open Source GIS Applications According to Human Computer

Interaction Guidelines

Jens IngensandGIS Research Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

(EPFL)jens.ingensand@epfl.ch

2004-06-08 Jens Ingensand, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology

Overview

1 Human Computer Interaction (HCI) Principles

2 Open Source Software and HCI

3 Development of an Interface According to HCI

Guidelines

4 Guidelines for Open Source GIS Developers

Developing Interfaces for Open Source GIS Applications According to HCI Guidelines

Overview

Guidelines

A set of theories and methods with one principal goal:

Minimizing the users cognitive load

Usability

- Effective to use (effectiveness)

- Efficient to use (efficiency)

- Safe to use (safety)

- Have good utility (utility)

- Easy to learn (learnability)

- Easy to remember how to use (memorability)

(Preece, 2002)

Overview

Guidelines

- The meeting of two different paradigms:

- The open source-developer-user who both uses software and contributes to

its development

- HCI principles that attempts to bridge the gap between programmers and

users through specific techniques

(Nichols & Twidale 2003)

- Is there a usability problem?

- Usability is harder to specify and to distribute than functionality - Open source software projects are often initiated by persons with a technical need- Usability experts seldom get involved in open source projects- Open source projects don’t have the resources to undertake

usability work- Open source software tends to bloat more than proprietary

software

Overview

Guidelines

Goals:

- parcel-management-system for winegrowers

- based on open-source GIS modules

- using HCI-guidelines

Guidelines

Technologies:

- MapServer

- Postgresql/Postgis

- Rosa-applet

- Java

Guidelines

HCI Problems (example)

Java mode disabled

Click to enable

Guidelines

Prototype

Overview

Guidelines

4 Guidelines for Open Source GIS Sevelopers

Problem: many different modules and projects put together

=> Consistency=> Feedback, error-handling and labels=> Focus on the interaction=> Compatibility

4 Guidelines for open-source GIS developers

Problem: missing contact to the user=> already a few sample-users can reveal

many problems=> offer possibility to give feedback to the

user=> involvement of other parties

Questions?

Comments?

Thank You!

Jens Ingensand GIS Research Laboratory, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL)

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