Usability Evaluation of GIS used for Viticulture Purposes : Empirical study of GIS in Israeli vinyards with focus on the user experience

Abstract

GIS is a system for capturing, storing, analyzing and managing data and associated attributes that are spatially referenced to the earth. A GIS integrates hardware, software and data. It is used in a wide range of sectors, for example in health, agriculture, communication, education, business and transportation. In vineyards, GIS is mainly used to support management decisions. It is the first time GIS is used in Israel for viticulture purposes. Therefore it was an opportunity to perform a qualitative research on the usability of GIS in Israeli viticulture. This study provides results fitting for software development, through measuring the ―effectiveness‖, ―efficiency‖ and ―satisfaction‖ usability criteria, with a special focus on the user experience. Usability evaluations are often conducted in a more traditional way (Quantitative research) that often focus on measure time and error rate. By using ethnographic methods in this study, I gained an understanding of the users in a way that I would not get by for example by the use of laboratory testing. I hoped to show that usability study could be done using a less traditional method. Data is mainly collected through participant observations, open- ended interviews and document studies. The overall assessment is that GIS is useful, both regarding to functional usefulness, and relate to user‘s satisfaction. The user experience is positive mainly due to ―effectiveness‖ aspect of GIS, i.e. the system help users achieve their goals at work. For further improvements, focus should be on the learnability and functionality of software interface. Instead of adding new functionalities, GIS developers should concentrate of improving presentation of existing features.