Porting a web-based mapping application to a smartphone app

  • Authors:

  • Hanan Samet;Marco D. Adelfio;Brendan C. Fruin;Michael D. Lieberman;Benjamin E. Teitler

  • Affiliations:

  • University of Maryland, College Park, MD;University of Maryland, College Park, MD;University of Maryland, College Park, MD;University of Maryland, College Park, MD;University of Maryland, College Park, MD

  • Venue:
  • Proceedings of the 19th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

NewsStand is a Web-based mapping application that we have developed to enable searching for spatially-referenced information by using a map query interface. Previously, we adapted the Web version to execute on mobile devices such as smartphones where the main issue that was confronted was how to deal with the considerably smaller display screen while retaining access to the application through the browser. In the current work we discuss the issues that we encountered in converting the Web-based application to a native App primarily on the iPhone and iPod Touch. These issues involve how to compensate for the absence of a hovering action as well as how to integrate an interaction restriction to one hand coupled with use of the thumb as the pointing mechanism. In addition, a significant effort is devoted to the implementation of an intuitive mechanism for undoing the most recent actions. Other issues include the formulation of navigation shortcuts to avoid excessive traffic with the supporting database.