EVALUATION OF USER INTERFACES FOR GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: A CASE STUDY

Lucia Peixe Maziero, Cláudia Robbi Slutter, Laura Sanchéz García, Cássio da Pieva Ehlers

2006

Abstract

This paper presents an evaluation of user interfaces of two Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools, ArcView and Spring. This work is related to a specific characteristic of those interfaces, which is to allow the user to view a map. User interfaces were evaluated based on the main cognitive difficulties related to the execution and evaluation bridges employing a cognitive engineering approach and, complementarily, in accordance with the semiotics engineering parameter called “system communicability”. Both evaluated systems are generally considered to be quite complex, not only in terms of understanding the interaction elements present in the interface, but also the knowledge embedded in the tasks that can be accomplished by these systems. Although the study described in this work was focused on a single task it confirmed the general opinion about these kinds of applications: a novice user cannot explore them without some assistance from an expert user or by studying books and manuals. Even an expert user usually faces significant difficulties using those GIS tools.

References

  1. Burrough, P. (1986). Principles of Geographical Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment. Oxford University Press.
  2. Carrol, J. (1995). Scenario-Based Design: Envisioning Work and Technology in System Development. Wiley.
  3. ESRI (1996). Using ArcView GIS - The Geographic Information Systems for Everyone. Environmental Systems Research Institute.
  4. INPE (2005). Spring Tutorial Class. Brazilian National Institute for Space Research.
  5. Prado, A., Baranauskas, M., and Medeiros, C. (2000). Cartography and geographic information systems as semiotic systems: a comparative analysis. In 8th ACM Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, pages 161-166.
  6. Prates, R. and Barbosa, S. (2003). Avaliac¸ a˜o de interfaces de usuário: conceitos e métodos. In XXIII Congress of the Brazilian Computer Society.
  7. Schimiguel, J. and Baranauskas, M. (2002). Evaluating signs in interfaces for geographic information systems. In Confereˆncia Ibero-Americana em Sistemas, Cibernética e Informática.
  8. Seixas, M. and Souza, C. (2004). Um método de avaliac¸a˜o para interfaces baseadas em mapas. In VI Brazilian Symposium in Computing Systems, pages 159-170.
  9. Silveira, M. (2002). Metacomunicac¸a˜o Designer-Usuário na Interac¸ a˜o Humano-Computador. PhD thesis, Graduate Program in Computer Science, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  10. Souza, C. (2005). The Semiotic Engineering of HumanComputer Interaction. The MIT Press.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Peixe Maziero L., Robbi Slutter C., Sanchéz García L. and da Pieva Ehlers C. (2006). EVALUATION OF USER INTERFACES FOR GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: A CASE STUDY . In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS, ISBN 978-972-8865-45-0, pages 79-86. DOI: 10.5220/0002455600790086


in Bibtex Style

@conference{iceis06,
author={Lucia Peixe Maziero and Cláudia Robbi Slutter and Laura Sanchéz García and Cássio da Pieva Ehlers},
title={EVALUATION OF USER INTERFACES FOR GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: A CASE STUDY},
booktitle={Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS,},
year={2006},
pages={79-86},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0002455600790086},
isbn={978-972-8865-45-0},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems - Volume 5: ICEIS,
TI - EVALUATION OF USER INTERFACES FOR GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS: A CASE STUDY
SN - 978-972-8865-45-0
AU - Peixe Maziero L.
AU - Robbi Slutter C.
AU - Sanchéz García L.
AU - da Pieva Ehlers C.
PY - 2006
SP - 79
EP - 86
DO - 10.5220/0002455600790086