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Making GIS accessible for Non-GIS Pros

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GeCo in the Rockies

This document discusses strategies for making GIS tools and data more accessible and useful for non-GIS professionals. It recommends creating simple applications that meet users' needs, providing frequent and focused training, giving easy access to other systems through GIS, reusing symbology to ease learning, and creating offline mobile maps and PDFs to allow access outside the office. It also discusses using Esri Collector and other mobile apps for field data collection and hosting cached basemaps and layers online for mobile access.

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MAKING GIS ACCESSIBLE FOR NON GIS PROS BILL JEFFREY
Asset Management Document Management ISS GIS City of Westminster Infrastructure Support Services Public Works & Utilities Office and field need maps of inventories
GIS EVANGELISM •AMS is top-down, GIS spreads bottom-up. •Success stories are key. •Diverse group of users. •Be the “tech guy”.
MAKING TOOLS FOR GENERAL USERS •Nobody cares howit works. •Apps that just meet your needs. •Easy to misinterpret users’ requests. •Demonstrate simple tools. Repeat…
RULES FOR A SUCCESSFUL TRAINING PROGRAM: •Frequent and timely •Succinct; no GIS marathons •Laser-focused to your audience •Available outside of classes •User-friendly tech
GIVING SIMPLE ACCESS TO OTHER SYSTEMS •“One stop shop” of several systems •Script creation of joined services •Link to cloud systems’ pages
Making GIS accessible for Non-GIS Pros
EASING THE LEARNING CURVE •Reuse symbology across systems •Use a shared generic account •Demos, one on one trainings
OFFLINE MOBILE MAPS •Used ArcReaderon laptops until recently –only a few “traditional” GIS users
OFFLINE MOBILE OPTIONS •Esri Collector App with cached editing •MapboxiOS SDK •OSM-friendly apps: gvSIGMini, Oruxmaps, QGIS (alpha)
PDF MAPS •iOS& Android •Replicates old mapbookswith familiar atlas sheets •Loads pdfs or tiffs from dropbox •Easy to locate yourself, find maps at your location, view assets, drop pins.
Making GIS accessible for Non-GIS Pros
ONLINE MOBILE GIS •Scales! –Need to zoom in way beyond L19 •Starting to show facilities’ details •Replace default basemapwith your own hosted cached vector layers •Easy to include scales in ArcGIS Online, Flex and JavaScript code
L19 (1:1128)vs L22 (1:141)
BASEMAPS •Code to configure desktop version to customize scales •L19 is 1:1,128 (about 1 foot aerial resolution) –show image •L23 is 1:70 (would be about .75 inch aerial native resolution) –show image •Adds four times the data of the last level each time you zoom in •find graphic, show storage space differences or a curve •JavaScript API to mirror the mobile experience back in the office, whether on desktop or tablet •Including scale adjustment code
GPS AND MOBILE DATA COLLECTION •ArcPad: slow, complex, overkill. Needs training to use well. •Only when accuracy is key and staff is trained ArcPadcomplexities Simple Collector app
MAKING GIS ACCESSIBLE FOR NON GIS PROS BILL JEFFREY

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Making GIS accessible for Non-GIS Pros

  • 1. MAKING GIS ACCESSIBLE FOR NON GIS PROS BILL JEFFREY
  • 2. Asset Management Document Management ISS GIS City of Westminster Infrastructure Support Services Public Works & Utilities Office and field need maps of inventories
  • 3. GIS EVANGELISM •AMS is top-down, GIS spreads bottom-up. •Success stories are key. •Diverse group of users. •Be the “tech guy”.
  • 4. MAKING TOOLS FOR GENERAL USERS •Nobody cares howit works. •Apps that just meet your needs. •Easy to misinterpret users’ requests. •Demonstrate simple tools. Repeat…
  • 5. RULES FOR A SUCCESSFUL TRAINING PROGRAM: •Frequent and timely •Succinct; no GIS marathons •Laser-focused to your audience •Available outside of classes •User-friendly tech
  • 6. GIVING SIMPLE ACCESS TO OTHER SYSTEMS •“One stop shop” of several systems •Script creation of joined services •Link to cloud systems’ pages
  • 8. EASING THE LEARNING CURVE •Reuse symbology across systems •Use a shared generic account •Demos, one on one trainings
  • 9. OFFLINE MOBILE MAPS •Used ArcReaderon laptops until recently –only a few “traditional” GIS users
  • 10. OFFLINE MOBILE OPTIONS •Esri Collector App with cached editing •MapboxiOS SDK •OSM-friendly apps: gvSIGMini, Oruxmaps, QGIS (alpha)
  • 11. PDF MAPS •iOS& Android •Replicates old mapbookswith familiar atlas sheets •Loads pdfs or tiffs from dropbox •Easy to locate yourself, find maps at your location, view assets, drop pins.
  • 13. ONLINE MOBILE GIS •Scales! –Need to zoom in way beyond L19 •Starting to show facilities’ details •Replace default basemapwith your own hosted cached vector layers •Easy to include scales in ArcGIS Online, Flex and JavaScript code
  • 15. BASEMAPS •Code to configure desktop version to customize scales •L19 is 1:1,128 (about 1 foot aerial resolution) –show image •L23 is 1:70 (would be about .75 inch aerial native resolution) –show image •Adds four times the data of the last level each time you zoom in •find graphic, show storage space differences or a curve •JavaScript API to mirror the mobile experience back in the office, whether on desktop or tablet •Including scale adjustment code
  • 16. GPS AND MOBILE DATA COLLECTION •ArcPad: slow, complex, overkill. Needs training to use well. •Only when accuracy is key and staff is trained ArcPadcomplexities Simple Collector app
  • 17. MAKING GIS ACCESSIBLE FOR NON GIS PROS BILL JEFFREY