Dinosaurs, Concorde & the Wedge of Geo

or

Escape from toolbar hell

Musings on the usability of more complex geo apps

@boilerwadding

Introductions

http://www.flickr.com/photos/infomofo/154877897/

Housekeeping

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pilotito/2769686499/

The Concorde Cockpit conundrum

Complex User Interface

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fakeplasticgirl/4614437251/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/billypalooza/134960911/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_night_flier/393866735/

“simplicity does not mean fewer features.”

Donald Norman

http://www.jnd.org/(via

http://www.gretchenpeterson.com/blog/?p=829)

The Wedge of Geo

100% geo-focussed

Location is a feature

Example: Location is a feature

Examples: Map Centric

Drivers of usability in geo apps

Productivity

Pro users are doing a job.

Training and wasted time are expensive.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/roland/4305223929/

Consistency

Users spend 99% of their time on other websites.

Users

Badly worded tendersPurchasing decisions made without user

consultation Desktop replacement web apps

149.1 The app shall have a data selection toolbar

149.2 The toolbar shall have select by point, line, polygon and rectangle tool icons

149.3 When depressed the selected tool icon shall change

150.1 There shall be a tool to enable the user to identify features on the map

150.2 The tool shall become active when clicked and the icon shall change to indicate the map is in Identify mode

http://www.flickr.com/photos/scott_blake/5589385480/

Can toolbar hell be a good thing?

http://www.photoshop.com

The Wedge of Geo

Editing & analysis

Pan & zoom

“[Wax] also adds the familiar zoombox control

originated by Schuyler Erle in OpenLayers”

Tom MacWrighthttp://developmentseed.org/blog/2011/jun/10

/wax-custom-advanced-ui-web-maps/

What goes around comes around….

Other Challenges?

•Keep simplicity – retain features

•Innovation versus proliferation (e.g. JS mapping libraries)

•Consistency, user expectation

•Productivity