usability in the geoweb

Why Web Design Firms can Eat Your

Lunch

Dave Bouwman / Data Transfer Solutions / http://blog.davebouwman.net

of

aregeo-geeks

weknow

spatialdata

analyzedata

createimpressive

maps

and all was good…

until…

yourmanager

sent a memo…

Era of“WebGIS”

stuff

“GIS” in a

browser

Cram desktop intoA browser

a lottolearn

Web Managernewapplications

customizationmeant…

Same toolsSame workflowsSame terminologyWorse performance

WebGIS Lesson Plan

1. Object Oriented Programming2. VB.NET / C# / Java3. Intro to HTML and CSS4. ESRI WebADF 5. Webservices 101

beforelong…

XHTMLCSS

Javascript

.NET

Visual Studio

Screen shot of CDOT

about your lunch…

what if we were web developers

wehow

see“WebGIS”?

would

most“WebGIS”

sitesare…

“Data”

“Tools”

interface

“Tasks”

“Analysis”

analysismarket

Co

st

Co

mp

lex

Usa

bili

ty

Val

ue

expectations:

budgets: high

low

Co

st

Usa

bili

ty

Val

ue

Co

mp

lexi

ty

opportunitymeans

“WebGIS”

and right about this time…

yourmanager

sends anothermemo…

GeoWeb

two dot oh

GIS meets…

address

businessin a

browser

problems

spatial

publish&

servicesconsume

moreto learn

Same toolsSame workflowsSame terminologyWorse performance

Todays Lesson Plan

1. Object Oriented Javascript2. Ajax: GETting and POSTing3. Intro to JQuery and Dojo4. Designing RESTful services5. JSON and JSONP6. CSS and browser tweaks7. Designing for social the social web

moretools

&FireBug

Aptana

howdo we

tacklethis?

protect

lunch?your

we

accept…must

we

understand…must

usability

featurestrumps

we

master…must

XHTMLCSS Ajax

JavascriptRSS

XML

.NET

JSONREST

TDD

WMS

WFS

GeoRSS

Atom

userslove…

users want…

Same toolsSame workflowsSame terminologyWorse performance

Project Overview

•Global Bird Flu Database •Spatial Module in a CMS•Complex Data Model

• 2000 Tables• >10,000 Stored Procedures

•Virtual Earth + Dojo Toolkit UI

Example 2

Same toolsSame workflowsSame terminologyWorse performance

Project Overview

•Roadway Project Management•Workflow Application•SAP Back-end•Dojo Toolkit UI•OpenLayers + WMS

realperformance

Get Extent

Get Points

Return to Browser

Cluster

>50,000

As Points As X,Y’s in a TableArcSDE + AGS: > 5 seconds Tabular Query: 0.3 seconds

*Supports complex queriesSQL2008: ~ 2 seconds

{"ClusteredPointLocationIds":[34480,34355,34354],"PointLocationId":34480,"IsClustered":true,Location":{"Lat":-2.15,"Lon":-80.53}

}

JSON:custom = fast

geo-geeks

pushpins?

perceivedperformance

activityindicators

SAP Get Project List

feedback…

what’sshould

I do?

handle

“null-case”the

Focused Tools

I only want to see the data for Calidris alpina, in Turkey, between 1998 and 2008

generic tool could

work…

automaticvalidation

pre-validate

possiblewhenever

validate

possibleas soon as

SAP Ref Selection

mapworkflow

the

debug

paperon

stopscope-creep

releaseearly

releaseoften

ProjectBacklog

IterationBacklog

Iteration2 Weeks

Product

iterativedevelopment

receivefeedback

Same toolsSame workflowsSame terminologyWorse performance

Zen of Usability

•Faster = Better•Lean on the wire•Use what works•Take small bites•Provide Feedback•Pit of Success•Design & Validate Usability

Summary:

kung-fu: needed

performance is critical

focus on usability

nobody can touch yourlunch

dbouwman@edats.comData Transfer Solutions

http://blog.davebouwman.net

Dave Bouwman

Questions?