Research On WebMap Design And Evaluation Based On Spatial Cognition

Along with the development of network technology, mobile communication technology and space information technology, as a new generation of map products, web map change the way of traditional map information sources and transmission mode, the form is more and more rich, and the geographic information service function is expanded. So the original approach to design and manufacture electronic map can not meet the needs of the web map design and production. We should be guided by spatial cognition, interaction design and other related theories, study the web map design and its usability evaluation. It will help us to design the universal web map accord with human spatial cognition characteristics, enhance the visual effect of the web map, and reduce people’s map spatial cognition burden, improve the spatial information transmission ability of web map, promote the development of the relevant theory and technology of web map. Based on the web map as the research object, this paper study focused on the relevant theoretical and technical problems of the web map design and its usability evaluation, the main research contents of this paper are as follows:1. The research on the web map spatial cognition model. Through summarizing the characteristics of web map, this paper put forward the new web map spatial cognition model, and points out that the formation of the web map users’cognitive map combines direct knowledge, prior knowledge and external knowledge. At the same time, the cartographers and the other web users received the new spatial cognitive knowledge.2. According to the characteristics of the web map spatial cognition, this paper put forward the web map interaction design process model, and study on the content of web map design. Using the methods of web map user survey, this paper summarizes the basic behavior structure, behavior preference of ordinary internet users, and etc. The user interface design of web map is studied in detail, it summarizes the users interface design principles on the general and mobile device, and perform the three cognitive experiments on the user interface layout of mobile web map, the web map direction design and the multi-scale representation design. The paper also preliminary study on the web map information architecture, interactive design tool and multi-scale expression design.3. The research on the visual graphic design, map label and its implementation methods of web map. This paper analysis the representative web maps’symbol and color,. summarizes the general rules and principles, performs the cognitive experiments on the web map symbol, and design the two different styles of web map using different color scheme. According to the characteristics of the multi-scale web map visualization representation, this paper summarizes the basic rules of the whole web map annotation configuration, discusses the web map linear elements annotation automatic configuration rules and implementation strategy. According to the urban POI database, this paper proposes a method of automatically extracting evenly distributed hierarchical landmarks based on the grids, it is applied to the web map multi-scale automatic extraction of landmark.4. The research on the web map usability evaluation. This paper puts forward the concept of web map usability, summarizes the basic principle of web map usability evaluation. This paper studies on the usability evaluation of web map, including usability evaluation of map website information architecture, user interface usability evaluation, interactive function usability evaluation, service function usability evaluation and map visualization usability evaluation. It summarizes the relevant methods of web map usability evaluation and comprehensive evaluation model.5. The research on the web map system design and experiment. According to above web map interaction design, web map visual graphics design and annotation configuration method, this paper validates the web map design through examples. This paper introduces the web map geographic information service target, system function design, the content of the web map and data organization design, interface design, interactive tool design, web map multi-scale representation design and perform the cognitive experiment on it. Finally, this paper validates the web map’s landmarks automatically be extracted through examples, and evaluate the web map’s usabilityusing fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method.