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Sat, Nov 3, 11:00 - 11:25, Ellwood 2     Paper (refereed)
Recommended Citation: Bone, T and D Johnson.  Human Factors in GIS Use: A Review and Suggestions for Research.  In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2007, v 24 (Pittsburgh): §3323. ISSN: 1542-7382.
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Human Factors in GIS Use: A Review and Suggestions for Research

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Refereed15 pages
Tonda Bone    [a1] [a2]
School of Library and Information Sciences
University of North Texas    [u1] [u2]
Denton, Texas, USA    [c1] [c2]

Dena Johnson    [a1] [a2]
Department of Computer Information Systems
Tarleton State University    [u1] [u2]
Stephenville, Texas, USA    [c1] [c2]

Geographic information systems (GIS) are becoming ubiquitous tools for constructing, manipulating, and communicating spatially-referenced information. Their use in problem-solving, management, and educational contexts is expanding to permeate social environments and the realm of public citizenry. While a GIS can visualize information in a number of ways, maps are the most common form for communicating information. Many studies have explored the effects of spatial ability on map reading, but little has been done in the way of delimiting key human factors that mediate an individual’s use of a GIS to solve spatial problems. This research reviews literature from geographic, cognitive, information systems, and decision sciences in order to establish important areas of research for understanding how users interact with a GIS. Understanding the effect of these individual factors on GIS interaction will mediate how educators teach GIS and incorporate it as course tool, how designers approach system development, how geodatabase administrators manage spatial data repositories, and how managers incorporate the human (employee) element into the spatial data work flow.

Keywords: HCI; GIS; geographic information systems; human factors; spatial cognition; spatial ability; computer aptitude; mental models

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