Abstract
The use of web mapping applications has increased considerably over
the last number of years. The growing user base points to a need
to investigate the user friendliness of web-based mapping
applications. Free software also plays an important part in this
development.
This thesis analyzes the usability of web mapping applications using
the following three steps:
- Analysis:
-
First, the usability of eleven selected Free web mapping
applications and Google Maps will be analysed.
- Smart Map Browsing:
-
Based on the results of this analysis the term Smart Map
Browsing will be used to indicate the usability of web mapping
applications. The properties of Smart Map Browsing will
be derived from the current state of technology and analyzed for
their future potential.
- Realization:
-
Finally, for the practical part of this thesis, the Smart Map Browsing
feature animated zooming is implemented into the Free
JavaScript web mapping application OpenLayers.
This extension allows the user to scale a map to a new zoom level during the
zooming process.
A first phase of the software development is already integrated into OpenLayers 2.4 RC2 (released in April 2007). The entire animated zooming feature is expected to be included in OpenLayers 2.5.
© 1. Juni 2007,
Emanuel Schütze,
some rights reserved.
Diese Arbeit ist unter der Creative Commons Lizenz
Namensnennung-Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen 2.0 Deutschland lizensiert.