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experience with the tested service. A questionnaire right after the thinking
aloud tasks is valuable because it helps reveal subjective opinions and user
satisfaction with the service. When the questionnaire is filled in right after
using the tested service, the answers usually are more valuable (Root and
Draper 1983). The questionnaires used in the usability evaluation seek to
find out what the test users think about the tested service and what features
they particularly like or dislike about it (Nielsen 1993). Questionnaires
seem to be a popular way of studying the printed maps. For instance, Ortag
(2009) used questionnaires for an experiment on three slightly different
topographic maps with both professionals and average users. Some ready-
made questionnaires exist, such as the System Usability Scale (SUS)
presented by Brooke (1996). The SUS is a ten-item Likert scale with
statements covering a variety of aspects on system usability, such as the
need for support and training and the complexity of the tested system. In
our case study, we utilised the SUS after the thinking aloud tasks. We also
developed questionnaires to study printed maps delivered from the
MenoMaps service in order to obtain specific information for our research.
3- Case Study on Evaluating the Channels of the Service
In the case study, we studied the ease-of-use and usefulness of the
MenoMaps multi-publishing service for hikers by using the methods of
thinking aloud and questionnaires. The usability of the user interfaces of
the applications as well as observations regarding the map contents and
visualisations are included in the study since from the user point of view
the user interface and the interactive maps cannot be separated.
3.1 Usability Evaluation
Usability tests were conducted separately for the three different channels
of the map-based multi-publishing service: the Web Map, the mobile map
application on an iPhone and the printed maps ( Fig. 2 ). The channels share
the same geospatial information and visual identity. The evaluation of the
web and mobile channels was conducted in a qualitative manner, while the
printed maps were tested using a quantitative method.
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