User-friendly web mapping: lessons from a citizen science website

  • Authors:

  • Greg Newman;Don Zimmerman;Alycia Crall;Melinda Laituri;Jim Graham;Linda Stapel

  • Affiliations:

  • Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA;Center for Research on Communication and Technology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA;The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin—Madison, Madison, WI, USA;Department of Forest, Rangeland and Watershed Stewardship, Warner College of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA;Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA;Center for Research on Communication and Technology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

  • Venue:
  • International Journal of Geographical Information Science
  • Year:
  • 2010

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Abstract

Citizen science websites are emerging as a common way for volunteers to collect and report geographic ecological data. Engaging the public in citizen science is challenging and, when involving online participation, data entry, and map use, becomes even more daunting. Given these new challenges, citizen science websites must be easy to use, result in positive overall satisfaction for many different users, support many different tasks, and ensure data quality. To begin reaching these goals, we built a geospatially enabled citizen science website, evaluated its usability, and gained experience by working with and listening to citizens using the website. We sought to determine general perceptions, discover potential problems, and iteratively improve website features. Although the website was rated positively overall, map-based tasks identified a wide range of problems. Given our results, we redesigned the website, improved the content, enhanced the ease of use, simplified the map interface, and added features. We discuss citizen science websites in relation to online Public Participation Geographic Information Systems, examine the role(s) websites may play in the citizen science research model, discuss how citizen science research advances GIScience, and offer guidelines to improve citizen-based web mapping applications.