The following information was submitted:
Transactions: WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON COMPUTERS
Transactions ID Number: 89-131
Full Name: Jitka Komarkova
Position: Associate Professor
Age: ON
Sex: Male
Address: FES, University of Pardubice, Studentska 95, 532 10 Pardubice
Country: CZECH REPUBLIC
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E-mail address: jitka.komarkova@upce.cz
Other E-mails: miloslav.hub@upce.cz
Title of the Paper: Usability User Testing of Selected Web-based GIS Applications
Authors as they appear in the Paper: Jitka Komarkova, Martin Jedlicka, Miloslav Hub
Email addresses of all the authors: Jitka.Komarkova@upce.cz, Martin.Jedlicka@student.upce.cz, Miloslav.Hub@upce.cz
Number of paper pages: 10
Abstract: Web-based geographic information systems (WGIS) are focused on end-users who have only a very limited knowledge of GIS, if any. For this reason, WGIS applications have to be user-friendly. In the terms of a software quality, WGIS applications have to be usable. Lately, many various usability evaluation methods have been developed. Real users or their representatives are included in some of them. Other methods are based only on GIS experts' evaluation of applications. Advantage of deploying real users or at least their representatives is clear – they are able to identify some usability problems which could not be identified by experts. The problem is that usability evaluation in a real situation done by real users is quite difficult. Experimental user usability testing done by representatives of users is the next possibility. In this case, artificial environment is prepared in a laboratory and the whole experiment must be precisely conducted and controlled. In all c!
ases usability testing method must be precisely proposed and/or adapted for the given situation and conditions. Aim of the paper is to propose a suitable experimental method based on usability user testing to identify the most serious usability problems of 14 equal WGIS applications (all applications are run by the Czech Regional Authorities and they are targeted at citizens and other end users). The proposed method is qualitative, so its main aim is to identify the most serious usability problems of the evaluated applications. The proposed method, results of testing and identified problems are described in the end of the paper.
Keywords: Usability, User testing, Web-based GIS
EXTENSION of the file: .pdf
Special (Invited) Session: Web-based Geographic Information Systems and their Usability
Organizer of the Session:
How Did you learn about congress: hana.kopackova@upce.cz, pavel.sedlak@upce.cz
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