User-centred design of neogeography: the impact of volunteered geographic information on users' perceptions of online map ‘mashups’

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of presenting volunteered and professionally created geographic information to 101 wheelchair users through an interactive website that included information collected by wheelchair-using volunteers. The aim of this experiment was to understand the influence that (1) knowing a map-based website contains volunteered information and (2) actually including volunteered information within an online interactive map (a mashup) have on the perceived trust of the user, described in terms of quality and authority. Analysis using Kruskal–Wallis showed that judgements of currency were influenced by including geo-information from untrained volunteers (volunteered geographic information) within the mashup, but not influenced by the participant being told that the online map contained volunteered information. The participants appeared to make judgements based on what information they saw, rather than what they were told about the source of the information.

Abstract

Practitioner Summary: Since 2004, information services have combined crowdsourced (volunteered) alongside professional information within online interactive maps. An online experiment presented both of these information types to wheelchair users within a travel context. Including volunteered information was shown to increase the perceptions of how up-to-date the maps were.

Keywords::

• information
• access
• trust
• human factors
• crowdsourcing

Notes

^1. In regions enhanced by data from Google Map Maker (http://www.google.co.uk/mapmaker).

^2. Within this paper, currency refers to the ability for the information to reflect current conditions: being ‘up to date’.

^3. At the time of publication, the current AccessAdvisr website represented a proof of concept site, and is under ongoing development based on end-user and wider stakeholder involvement.

^4. The extent to which all the items in a test measure the same concept or construct and hence it is connected to the inter-relatedness of the items within the test (Tavakol and Dennick 2011).

Additional information

Funding

This study was undertaken as part of a PhD at Loughborough University Design School under the auspices of the Ideas in Transit project (www.ideasintransit.org), which was funded by the UK government via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Transport.