Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
available (geo)data further influence application design. Guidelines, standards, and
best practice examples from cartography, general design and Web design are
consulted for both, the building of concepts as well as evaluation processes.
Requirements Stage
The most important stage towards developing a usable and utile application is the
thorough analysis of user requirements and application goals. A crucial question
which needs to be answered initially is, whether there is any demand for the kind of
application planned. Moreover, user research needs to be carried out with prospec-
tive end users to gather information on their requirements, goals/tasks, user char-
acteristics, use contexts and which devices they want to use. In this stage methods
which are typically applied for the development of Web-mapping applications are
interviews, focus groups, online surveys, observation and think-aloud.
Project requirements are often already clearly defined through proposals or
contracts. They influence application goals and requirements in terms of the
expectations and required outcomes of stakeholders, as well as the scope, budget
and time-frame for the project. From the developer
s view, further elements that
influence application requirements and goals are personal & financial resources, the
available know-how (including technological know-how and know-how of user
research and usability testing), as well as the available software and usual mode of
operation. Smaller development teams will take a more informal approach to
application design and user testing, whereas in bigger companies the mode of
operation will be more formal. Together all these elements form the application
goals and requirements (application capabilities, user profiles, scenarios of use,
device requirements, and usability requirements). The know-how and resources of
the developers do not only influence the application requirements, but also the
development of strategies for user and usability research. The research strategies
also have to be adapted according to the user groups and availability of subjects.
Furthermore, it is important to select a combination of user and usability research
methods which create data needed for facilitating decision making at the stake-
holder level.
In a second stage the established application goals and requirements lead into
application and cartographic concepts. These concepts present a theoretical model
of how the Web-mapping application should work, which functions it should have,
how information is going to be presented and how the interaction between users and
the application will take place. The cartographic concepts should at least include
the types of information shown, in the map, the projection, scale levels, and
symbolisation of data (Tyner
2010
).
The concepts are further influenced by the environment in which the application
will have to sustain (especially by an evaluation of similar existing applications),
technological constraints which may impede the development, and the availability
of data. Paper-prototypes and mock-ups can be used to test the application concepts
'
