GEOG 583
Geospatial System Analysis and Design

User Analysis

User Analysis

When starting a design, it is important to consider your users through a user centered approach. Two ways to accomplish this is through a scenario based design (Rosson, 2002) and a persona based design.

The user centered approach of a user analysis can help prevent some of the issues that arise with a “solutions first approach”, which focuses on the needs of the design, and not the needs of the users. A solutions first approach can be quicker, simplify the problem, and rely on the expert knowledge of the designers, however, it can lead to inefficient design, frequent iterative fixes, and lost time . Overall, the scenario based design provides an emphasis on the user, user experience, efficient user designs, and saves time overall.

A conceptual framework of mobile cartography. The red box is outlining the user analysis and needs assessment components of the design..
Figure 1. Conceptual Framework of Mobile Cartography (Own illustration, based on Reichenbacher 2001).
Credit: © B. Gaertner. Used with permission.

Figure 1 above is showing the conceptual framework of mobile cartography outlined in Schultz et al. (2021). The red box is outlining the user analysis and needs assessment stage, that provides the necessary user input for effective design. As the conceptual framework illustrates, the user provides demands based on their expectations of UI/UX requirements, then provide demands/feedback, the designer iteratively implements. The important component of this type of framework is how to solicit user input and feedback on the efficiency of a geospatial design. We will discuss this in the next few pages.

References:

Schulz, M., Huiber, J., & Bandrova, T. (2021, December). A set of criteria for evaluating map application design in a mobile environment. In Proceedings of the ICA (Vol. 4, pp. 1-8). Copernicus GmbH.

Reichenbacher, T. (2004). Mobile cartography: adaptive visualisation of geographic information on mobile devices. (Doctoral dissertation, Technische Universität München).

Scenario Based Design and Persona Mapping

A scenario based design and persona mapping are stories outlining the background of the user, the setting in which the user will interact with the design, the personal motivations, knowledge, and capabilities necessary for the user, and a detailed explanation of how the design will improve the situation for the user. See Rosson and Carroll, 2007.

Below is a brief overview of how to write and conceptualize a scenario based design.

  1. Start with the background of the user. Consider the following questions:

    • Is the user a advanced Geospatial analyst, a novice analyst, or a citizen with no experience with GIS?

    • What is the job title of the user?

  2. Explain the situation in which the user is interreacting with the design.

    • When will the users be interreacting with the app?

    • How often will they be using the design? 

  3. Define the problem

    • How is the user interreacting with the current design? 

    • What are some current issues, confusions, or difficulties with the design? 

  4. Provide the specific situation in which the user is interreacting the new design:

    • How will the user interact with the new design?

    • How will the new design provide a solution to some of the confusions/concerns in the previous designs?

    • What are some specific features that are provided in the new design that is not present in the old design?

References:

Rosson, M. B., & Carroll, J. M. (2007). Scenario-based design. In The human-computer interaction handbook (pp. 1067-1086). CRC Press.

Getto, G., & Moore, C. (2017). Mapping personas: Designing UX relationships for an online coastal atlas. Computers and Composition, 43, 15-34.