User experience (UE) has become an important factor that needs to be considered when designing Web applications. User experience refers to the level of satisfaction that users build in the process of using a product or service. Traditional GIS is mainly used by GIS professionals, and its design goals are mainly focused on functions and do not pay attention to user experience. Currently, WebGIS users have expanded to the entire public. For these non-professional users, they have no basic concepts of GIS and hope that WebGIS will be as simple and easy to use as ordinary Web pages. In order to meet user expectations, WebGIS should follow four main principles in terms of user experience design, namely usefulness, ease of use, speed and fun. Usability requires the development team to correctly understand the user’s needs for system functions and content, and speed often depends on the performance of GIS servers and the optimization of Web services (see Section 3. Section 5), the following content in this section details the ease of use and fun. Ease of use is an important quality indicator of Web applications, and its simple guiding motto is “Don’t let me (here, the user) bother”(Krug, 2000). Unlike indicators such as “no more than three clicks”, ease of use pays less attention to the number of clicks, but more attention to the difficulty of each click, ensuring that users can easily, unequivocally, and confidently find the links they should click., quickly complete what they want to do or get the information they need. Otherwise, users have to think hard about “Where should I click? Did I order it wrong? This will consume users ‘time and confidence, lead to a lower user experience, and even cause users to give up using the system. Brian Noyle(2009) and Clint Brown et al.(2008) outline the key points for achieving WebGIS ease-of-use, including Hidden complexity:WebGIS should create intuitive and targeted applications to serve specific purposes. On the basis of meeting user needs, provide as few tools and layers as possible, use less obscure technical terms, and be self-evident, rather than drowning users in a large number of unnecessary functions and layers, distracting users. Attention makes it difficult for users to use. Provide feedback: Many GIS functions require multiple steps to complete. Good design should guide users through these steps easily, provide visual clues and understandable feedback, and give users confidence Feel like you are in the right workflow. In the early 1990s, the entire world was excited about being able to browse pictures through the Web. Subsequently, people continued to expect more expressive technologies such as animation effects, engaging multimedia, and more intuitive interfaces. To meet these needs, rich Internet application (RIA) technology began to emerge (Allaire,2002). The term RIA was originally used to describe the effects of the new version of Adobe Flash Player, but its meaning was later broadened and no longer limited to Flash applications. Rich Internet applications generally refer to those Web applications that provide a rich user experience and are popular. RIA can be developed using HTML 5, Flex, Silverlight and mobile client interface technologies. In the field of WebGIS, rich Internet applications are also developing rapidly. Most of these applications use client-side programming interfaces, such as the APIs provided by ArcGIS for JavaScript, Flex, Silverlight, iOS, and Android, etc., bringing users a fresh and fun user experience. For example, map tiles within the current map range and nearby areas are obtained through asynchronous communication to provide users with smooth map pan and zoom effects; animation effects are used to vividly display operable layers, such as simulating helicopter flight and typhoon travel; When the mouse clicks or stays on the operation layer, an information window pops up immediately, displaying relevant details, photos, videos and statistical charts; Use pie charts or bar charts to display the demographic situation of the area around a retail store; combine real-time photos, audio and video, and link or superimpose them on an added map; create multiple time series aerial photos into movie playback effects, showing historical changes in land use; appropriately use various visualization effects such as zoom, fading, flip, rotate, bounce, fly, ripple and flash. User experience design requires user needs surveys, but it cannot be limited to this. As Ford, who invented the family car, said: “If we ask customers what they need, they will say it’s a faster horse.” Similarly, the design of WebGIS requires designers to stand from the user’s perspective, understand and imagine the user’s needs, explore the user’s unconscious needs, and carry out innovative designs on this basis. When users see your product, they decide it’s exactly what they need.ease of use #
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