The development of an experimental approach for the generation of a usability hypothesis about the academic use of geo-information

Abstract

Very little attention has been given to understanding how academics obtain and use geo-information to support their tasks of teaching and research. Considering usability, fewer methods have been developed for determining the potential use of geoinformation. This paper describes our efforts to develop an experimental approach to generate a usability hypothesis on the academic use of geo-information. This approach is based on a step-wise process that includes the identification of a usability premise, the performance of a user survey, the analysis of the results, and finally, the inference of a usability hypothesis. Towards a consistent identification of a usability premise, a web questionnaire was designed and distributed to academics from 25 Spanish Universities, covering several scientific and technological fields. Three usability elements have been considered in the questionnaire: purpose of use, trust and accessibility of geoinformation. More than 100 answers have been received showing how the academics strongly welcomed the questionnaire and how involved they are in using geoinformation for both education and research activities. Very little attention has been given to understanding how academics obtain and use geo-information to support their tasks of teaching and research. Considering usability, fewer methods have been developed for determining the potential use of geoinformation. This paper describes our efforts to develop an experimental approach to generate a usability hypothesis on the academic use of geo-information. This approach is based on a step-wise process that includes the identification of a usability premise, the performance of a user survey, the analysis of the results, and finally, the inference of a usability hypothesis. Towards a consistent identification of a usability premise, a web questionnaire was designed and distributed to academics from 25 Spanish Universities, covering several scientific and technological fields. Three usability elements have been considered in the questionnaire: purpose of use, trust and accessibility of geoinformation. More than 100 answers have been received showing how the academics strongly welcomed the questionnaire and how involved they are in using geoinformation for both education and research activities. In fact, only 6% of the answers reveal the lack of use of geo-information. The results show a high level of trust in the quality of geo-information, and that there are less difficulties of accessing geoinformation than previously expected. However, the existing accessibility issues are mainly related to the lack of knowledge and use of metadata (formats) and Spatial Data Infrastructures (interoperability). The main findings confirm the important role of identifying a usability premise based on explicit users input that will support a usability hypothesis.