Below is the result of your feedback form.
It was submitted by Andrew Loew
(andrewloew@hotmail.com) on Wed Apr 09
10:59:02 EDT 2003
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Comment: Other
Message: General Website Features:
When the main page loads
(http://idatamap.cs.umb.edu/DeisTest/jsp/StatePage.jsp
), I have no idea
what it?s about. Perhaps some of the content from the ?
About DEIS? page
could be used as an introduction? I realize this is a
beta, so maybe
that?s in the works.
The maps take a minute or two to open on a fast
computer with high
speed internet. Perhaps some attribute data could be
deleted or dissolved
to make it load faster? I?m not sure how much that
would help, or if
that?s already been done.
Cartographic/GIS Features:
I like the look of the maps in general. You use a rational
color scheme
for a choropleth map. It might be useful to include a
scale bar. Also,
I?d like to be able to see where a few of the major cities
are, or
perhaps the MSA or PUMA names (rather than ID #s)
could be displayed in the
mouse-over attributes.
About the query generator: do all queries using multiple
variables have
to use the ?and? operator? It would be nice to allow for
using some
other boolean search types.
User Interface Features:
When I got to the point of selecting a data source and
clicked on the
??? button next to the data source pull-down, the pop-
up help window
opened to notes on geographic areas. I had to scroll
down to find notes on
data sources. Maybe you could insert an anchor so it
opens right to the
data source section? Also, I wanted to know who
collects PUMS data, but
that wasn?t mentioned.
Likewise, when I went to choose a geographic area and
clicked on its
??? link, it opened to notes on geographic areas, but
none of the options
listed (blocks, tracts, counties) were available on the
pull-down. I
had to scroll down to the bottom to find another section
labeled
?Geographic Areas? that applied here. Presumably the
boundary line function
(blocks etc?) will be added in the future ? if so, perhaps
you should
label it ?Select a Boundary Type? to avoid confusion
with the PUMA/MSA
geographic area choices.
When selecting the variables(s) to look at, you might
want to include
something that tells people to hold down the Control
key to select
multiple variables.
The ?Map Navigator? is a bit hard to decipher.
Something that?s
confusing for GIS users but might not be for a more
general user is that,
after clicking on the ?Zoom In? button, clicking on the
map surface doesn?t
actually zoom in. Also, there?s no way to re-center the
map before
zooming in ? this might lead some people to think that
the drag-centering
function is broken.
Another thing I noticed was that, when multiple maps
are open, clicking
on ?Query Description? always shows the query for
whatever the most
recently created map was, even if you click on the
button in another map.
Finally, just one little formatting item: when mousing-
over a polygon
for which there is no data available, the ?No Data
Available? attribute
display at the lower left crosses into the map window.
Overall, despite several little problems, I think you?ve
created a very
nice product. It could be very useful for people who don?
t have access
to conventional GIS.
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Below is the result of your feedback form.
It was submitted by David Knudsen
(david.knudsen@att.net) on Mon Apr 07
22:28:10 EDT 2003
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Comment: Advice
Message: [Completed for Alberto's EGS 417 class]
The help page seems to contain duplicate headings for ?
choosing a
geographic area,? and no heading describing how to
select more than one
category (i.e. the Ctrl key must be held down to select ?
18-64? and
?college degree?). Also, the questions marks? position
suggests that the help
displayed will be context-sensitive (jump to the
appropriate subject),
but the help page displays in the same position each
time. From a UI
standpoint, I would prefer to see the question marks
rendered as buttons
so that they fit better with the other form controls on the
page.
Somewhere in Help or maybe in an ?About? link, you
need to describe
what is required for the web site to work properly. For
example, IE is
required, as is the SVG plug-in. A link should be
provided to download
the preferred plug-in.
The alignment of the query selection controls on the first
screen looks
ragged. Perhaps it would seem neater if the labels were
aligned left
and the drop down lists in the same rows were aligned
right?
There is no ?throbber? (?please be patient while a
response map/table
is constructed? message). Instead, I see a blank white
screen in my
browser and have no idea how long I should wait before I
decide that the
request is not working. The most useful message
would say something to
the effect that a map file of n MB is being generated and
downloaded,
and an animated GIF loading bar would give the
impression of data
transfer in progress.
The need for a loading message raises another issue.
The map data
returned is quite large, and so this application is not
well suited for
dial-up connections. In fact, the data returned is fairly
large even for a
broadband connection in the case where the PUMA
analysis areas are
chosen. It took at least a minute to begin to display the
map over a T1
connection. The bandwidth requirements should be
included with the other
requirements (browser and plug-in). Another way to
attack the issue
would be to have strong guidelines for the geographic
data that is loaded
by the administrator. For example, the PUMA
administrative shapes
probably have far more vertices than are really
necessary for a map of this
scale, and the data should be generalized before
loading. Also,
although this doesn?t reflect on the program itself, it
appears that the
geographic data for CA is not projected. It would look a
little less
distorted if it were projected to California State Plane
coordinates, or to
UTM coordinates.
In cartographic terms, the choice of colors and the
appearance of the
linework looks very clean. However, there are some
improvements that
could be made.
The overall layout could probably benefit from some
organizing lines or
boxes to separate the map detail area from the legend
and the controls.
If the legend were titled using the query, then there
would be no need
for a link on the screen to pop up the awkward
additional browser
window showing the query used. This ensures that the
legend can be properly
interpreted even if the map title is not explicit (i.e. if the
title
reads merely ?CA Population,? then having ?% per
MSA (aged 18-64)? as a
legend title becomes crucial).
The legend labels should really give the true values
ranges. That is,
the first color may represent all percentages below a
certain
threshold, but the following colors do not represent all
percentages below the
given thresholds. Instead they represent percentages
below the given
threshold and above the threshold of the previous color.
As such, they
should read ?Greater than or equal to [lower limit] and
less than [upper
limit],? or some acceptable abbreviation or shorthand for
this.
Although the color ramp used is pleasing to the eye,
technically,
because you are portraying a range of quantitatively
different values
(rather than qualitatively different ones), you should use
colors that are
all the same hue while differing in intensity or value. For
example,
shades of oranges or shades of green would be
appropriate.
Somewhere (possibly the legend) the equal interval
method should be
explicitly listed as the method used to assign
categories (because
quantile, natural breaks, and standard deviation
methods could be used as
well, and the choice dramatically affects the appearance
and interpretation
of the data). A nice-to-have feature would let the user
select the
method of breaking up the range into categories,
perhaps on the initial
screen near where the user selects the number of
categories.
A key would be helpful in order to explain that the gray
shaded box
represents the area of the entire state that is currently
visible in the
detail area at the left. It could even say something
like, ?Area
covered by detail map. Drag to move the center of the
detail map without
changing scale.? Likewise, text is needed on the
screen above the dynamic
value display that explains ?Roll over detail map
elements to see the
applicable values below.? The label ?ID? would be
clearer as ?MSA ID?
or ?PUMA ID,? as applicable. It seems somewhat
redundant to include the
?State? field at all, when it will be the same for every
geographic
feature.
The pop-up ?tool tip? for showing the query appears
whenever any other
active element of the page is rolled over. The text itself
of the
?Query Description? button, while active for clicks, does
not cause the
tool tip to show. Only the non-text area of the button
triggers the tool
tip.
Nice work overall! I'm a programmer myself, so I have
some idea of the
challenges involved.
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