X-Mailer: ELM [version 06.01.01.00 (2.3 PL11)]
Newsgroups: comp.infosystems.gis
Date:         Wed, 19 Aug 1992 14:21:30 CDT
              <GIS-L@UBVM.BITNET>
From:         bob moore <moore@NODENAME.B30.INGR.COM>
Subject:      GIS Interfaces: we do agree
X-To:         GIS-L@UBVM.cc.buffalo.edu
              at Aug 19, 92 8:40 am

According to: Jay Sandhu:

> I was going to stay out of this debate, but ...

Me too Jay, but ...

> I think (know) that the GIS community is no different than
> any other computer industry at this moment in its
> approach to solving the "interface" problem. That is,
> the current approach IS to provide "interface building"
> tools to the system builders.

I agree with Jay.

The problem that we all are facing is that there is no correct user
interface for all users. The individual work- and data-flows of an
organization dictate the user interface most appropriate for the end users
of the system.

To bring GIS to the masses, user interfaces must be designed in close
cooperation with these occasional users. This requires an application
development environment which permits the integration of data from many
sources and of many types with a user interface that is designed for the
specific purpose of the end user. The user interfaces needed to
facilitate the use of the system will be as different as there are
"classes" of users.

This will obviously lead to an infinate number of possibilities for the
way in which a user interface behaves as, for example, the user interface
at the "query center" at the tax assessor's office will likely be
different at every tax office in every county in the country. It is just a
fact of life that everyone does it differently. I do not believe that it
is the place of a vendor to try to enforce a standard as personal as the
user interface. Providing tools and consultive support is a far better
solution which results in a functioning system that the users will accept.

It was bound to happen. We are finally moving from the use of GIS technology
as purely a scientific or engineering tool into an age of the end user. We
that have been pioneers in the GIS world have taken a lot of arrows over
the years, and were willing to take those arrows due to the simple fact
that GIS technology gave us some tools which facilitated our own
scientific interests. The tools haven't always been easy to use (in most
cases we didn't even think of a user interface as an issue) but if we were
willing to fight a little, and take some arrows, we obtained the results.

The new GIS users are not necessarily scientists (yes, geography is a
science). They are the people that the industry, as a whole, has been
waiting to see come to the market. They are demanding, they want it easy
to use, they don't want to know about formats, they don't want to know
the technology in too much detail. They just want to know, in most cases,
where it is, what it is, is the location suitable, or capable and they
want it their way. The industry is responding with tools to facilitate
their wishes, which makes for a wonderful opportunity for those "would be"
user interface designers to get in there and take some arrows.

--
Robert S. Moore
Internet:  moore@nodename.b30.ingr.com