Interacting with Geospatial Technologies (PDF)

This book provides an introduction to HCI and usability aspects of
Geographical Information Systems and Science. Its aim is to
introduce the principles of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); to
discuss the special usability aspects of GIS which designers and
developers need to take into account when developing such systems;
and to offer a set of tried and tested frameworks, matrices and
techniques that can be used within GIS projects.

Geographical Information Systems and other applications of
computerised mapping have gained popularity in recent years. Today,
computer-based maps are common on the World Wide Web, mobile
phones, satellite navigation systems and in various desktop
computing packages. The more sophisticated packages that allow the
manipulation and analysis of geographical information are used in
location decisions of new businesses, for public service delivery
for planning decisions by local and central government. Many more
applications exist and some estimate the number of people across
the world that are using GIS in their daily work at several
millions. However, many applications of GIS are hard to learn and
to master. This is understandable, as until quite recently, the
main focus of software vendors in the area of GIS was on the
delivery of basic functionality and development of methods to
present and manipulate geographical information using the available
computing resources. As a result, little attention was paid to
usability aspects of GIS. This is evident in many public and
private systems where the terminology, conceptual design and
structure are all centred around the engineering of GIS and not on
the needs and concepts that are familiar to the user.

This book covers a range of topics from the cognitive models of
geographical representation, to interface design. It will provide
the reader with frameworks and techniques that can be used and
description of case studies in which these techniques have been
used for computer mapping application.