TY - JOUR
T1 - Competitive analysis of current Ocean Web-Mapping Applications
AU - Church, D. I.
AU - Stefanakis, E.
AU - Ruiz, M. P.
JO - The International Hydrographic Review
VL - 20
PY - 2018
DA - 2018/11/30
UR - https://ihr.iho.int/articles/competitive-analysis-of-current-ocean-web-mapping-applications/
AB - A  competitive  analysis  study  is  a  usability  engineering  method  administered  to critically  analyze  and  compare  a  set  of  similar  applications  according  to  their relative merits. This paper presents a competitive analysis study of current ocean web-mapping applications that deliver ocean related data to the scientific community.  The  analysis  is  part  of  a  User-Centered  Design  (UCD)  approach that  was applied  to  develop  the  Ocean  Web-Mapping  Application  of  the  Ocean  Mapping Group (OMG) at the University of New Brunswick (UNB), a web mapping application  to  deliver  ocean  mapping  data  to  ocean  modellers.  A  total  of  twenty-four existing  applications  were  critically  analyzed  and  compared  across  two  broad themes  in  cartography:  (1)  representation  and  (2)  interaction;  adding  topics  to consider the potential needs of ocean modellers. The results helped to establish trends  and  gaps  and  to  discover  new  opportunities  for  ocean  web-mapping development. Using the conclusions drawn from this study, an online survey was prepared to be conducted by ocean modellers and continue the UCD methodology of the Ocean Web-Mapping Application.