Skarlatidou, Artemis;
Moreu, Marcos;
Haklay, Muki;
(2024)
The Utilization of Maps in Geographic Citizen Science: A Preliminary Analysis of Usability and User Experience Issues and Opportunities.
Annals of the American Association of Geographers
10.1080/24694452.2024.2426714.
(In press).
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Abstract
The rapid proliferation of geospatial technologies and the widespread utilization of Web and mobile maps by nonexpert audiences spurred new perspectives and research paradigms within geography. One area affected by this transformation is citizen science, where geospatial technologies facilitated its more widespread use and revolutionized the way scientific knowledge is coproduced, especially in the environmental context. Geographic citizen science is widely used to support the collection and analysis of geolocated scientific data, extend existing geographic data coverage, and enable communities to address local issues. The inherent complexity of geospatial interfaces and data is widely recognized and there is a wealth of geographic research focusing on improving human–map interactions, with less emphasis, nevertheless, given to citizen science. Not only do these applications have their unique characteristics, but inclusiveness is paramount, which further adds to these complexities. Through an investigation of 229 geographic citizen science applications, we provide an overview of how geographic interfaces are currently employed in citizen science. We then evaluate a selection of applications to identify critical usability barriers, which might have a detrimental impact on the overall user experience and the success of these projects. Among others, we found that geographic citizen science applications need to better support visual thinking and leverage participants’ geographic knowledge. We subsequently provide a set of recommendations for map design and functionality and identify opportunities for future geovisualization research.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Utilization of Maps in Geographic Citizen Science: A Preliminary Analysis of Usability and User Experience Issues and Opportunities |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/24694452.2024.2426714 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2024.2426714 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Citizen science; geovisualisation; usability; user experience |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10201493 |
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