A Tangible Augmented Reality Interface to Tiled Street Maps and its Usability Testing

The Tangible Augmented Street Map (TASM) is a novel interface to geographic objects, such as tiled maps of labeled city streets. TASM uses tangible Augmented Reality, the superimposition of digital graphics on top of real world objects in order to enhance the user’s experience. The tangible object (i.e. a cube) replicates the role of an input device. Hence the cube can be rotated to display maps that are adjacent to the current tile in geographic space. The cube is capable of theoretically infinite movement, embedded in a coordinate system with topology enabled. TASM has been tested for usability using heuristic evaluation, where selected experts use the cube, establishing non-correspondence with recognized usability principles. While general and vague, the heuristics helped prioritize immediate geographic and system-based tasks needed to improve the usability of TASM, also pointing the way towards a group of geographically oriented heuristics. This addresses a key geovisualization challenge — the creation of domain-specific and technology-related theory.