Geospatial Whitepaper - Mapping the Full Picture

A ThinkPlace – Mercury Project Solutions Whitepaper (v1.0)

thinkplace_mercury_whitepaper_-_mapping_the_full_picture_v2.0.pdf

The traditional approach to publishing maps on the internet "by GIS experts, for GIS experts" is outdated, ineffective and unusable as online mapping has become mainstream. Applications need to be designed for ease of use, and cater for users whose web experience is guided by swiping left or right.
This rapidly increasing audience can no longer be expected to be GIS savvy. They won't wade through complex interfaces, attend a weeklong training course to understand technical terms, nor wait more than 5 seconds for a map to appear.

The digital economy is booming and digital and online agencies are publishing new and exciting apps, many of them having some kind of mapping functionality. Yet there seems to be a big divide between UX & digital design professionals on the one hand, and GIS professionals and cartographers
on the other.

This whitepaper describes common scenarios for geospatial projects, explores striking examples from both sides of the divide and analyses the impact of allowing divides to exist. Importantly, we explore why this divide continues to persist and examine how application of co-design approaches to geospatial projects can deliver multiple benefits for all stakeholders.

ThinkPlace Senior Executive Designer and Geospatial Subject Matter Expert, Dr Laura Kostanski, has partnered with Maurits van der Vlugt of Mercury Project Solutions to develop this whitepaper. Mercury Project Solutions is a collective of Independent Spatial Information Consultants. Founded in January 2010 services they provide include Strategic Consulting, Spatial and Information Architectures, Implementation Planning, and Project and Program Management in the geospatial domain.

Between ThinkPlace and Mercury Project Solutions, we bring the full range of expertise, design knowledge and experience to our geospatial client engagements. Together, we