Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
tasks. MQ differs from the two other portals the most in the areas of map content
and searching logic, and MQ is also the only map portal which offers the option of
switching layers on/off. This may appear to be an advantage for users, since the map
is not overloaded with map symbols. However, the results of the user test may prove
that user orientation on a map is highly dependent on practice with the described
scheme.
Further analysis focused on the differences between men and women in the user
test. In general, women needed more time to perform most of the tasks. This finding
needs to be further verified in extended studies. Another promising direction of
future research lies in the area of cartographical visualization analyses of spatial
data originating from spatial data infrastructures, such as INSPIRE (INfrastructure
for Spatial InfoRmation in Europe) as described, for example, by ˇ ezn´k( 2013 ). At
the same time, issues concerning the popularity and diversity of various map portals
in different countries can be examined.
Conclusion
This paper presents a usability evaluation of the most popular world-wide
map portals: Google Maps, Bing Maps, and Map Quest. The main aim of this
study was to identify potential vulnerabilities in usability of these map portals
and compare the results with a previous usability study by Nivala
et al. ( 2008 ). Since it has been 5 years since Nivala conducted her tests, we
asked which problems have already been solved, and we identified persistent
problems and possible new weaknesses in map portals. The main methods
used in this research were a combination of qualitative and quantitative tasks
performed in an electronic user test conducted in a MUTEP environment.
We found that the greatest number of problems mentioned by Nivala
et al. ( 2008 ) that still persist concern cartographic visualization. Problems
regarding user interface, help and guidance and search operations have
already been solved.
Table 1 summarizes the results obtained in the user test, establishing the
main strengths and weaknesses in map visualization of each portal tested.
According to Table 1 , BM has the most weaknesses of all tested portals.
Nevertheless, most users liked the symbology used by BM. GM may be
considered to be the best map portal, since most users preferred its general
map visualization and its labels seemed most effective. It may be assumed
that MQ is the least usable portal, since it uses searching logic that is different
from that of the other two portals and users found it to be quite confusing. On
the other hand, MQ is the only portal with the option of switching layers on
and off.
Visual interpretation helped to identify null-hypotheses that could be
proven by the user test. The user test showed that the majority of null-
hypotheses were true, with the exception of the hypothesis that considered
the GM symbology to be the best one.
(continued)
 
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