Research on User Preferences for the Functionality of Web Maps

The quality of operations that can be interactively performed by users (map functions) is crucially important in the use of interactive Web maps. The concept of map functionality encompasses the capabilities provided to the user, such as viewing, analysis, or integral management of map elements. This chapter presents a framework and Web-based application for research on the functionality of Web maps. Special tools have been designed for the collection of information about users’ preferences in an interactive way. The Web-based application CartoUI (www.cartoui.com) allows users to express their ideas about interactive map functions and map layout by compiling their own Web map prototypes. The chapter also introduces statistics yielded by study of 75 users who had created different prototypes of simple maps. Their preferences were analysed in order to prepare general user-driven requirements for Web maps presented in the paper.

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