My first presentation at WhereCamp EU, relating to the work we're doing with Ubisense myWorld. In the title G=Google and the question has two meanings ... if you're a traditional GIS user, should you be using Google Maps or something similar (answer=yes), and given that, should you be using Google specifically (answer is it depends ... we no longer use Google App Engine, we do use Google Maps but have been testing OpenLayers for offline applications).
Welcome to a new reality - DeepCrawl Webinar 2018Bastian Grimm
My webinar with DeepCrawl talking about mobile-friendliness, assessing keyword targeting on mobile, finding content inconsistencies across devices and much, much more!
When it comes to mobile web design and testing, mobility plays by a far different set of rules than the desktops of years past. We are challenged by the variety and multitude of browsers, devices, OS types and OS versions at consumers’ disposal. Simply put: the rules of mobility are not easy to master.
In this eBook, we discuss the following topics:
- Testing mobile websites in adverse operating conditions
- Scripting Reactively
- Prioritizing devices and browsers when testing
- Embracing hybrid mobile app models
- Preventing browser compatibility issues
- Avoiding hidden problems
- Verifying UI actions
- Using a different design for mobile
Strings to Things - The move to Semantic SEO - MozCon 2013Matthew Brown
My presentation at MozCon 2013 - I go into the latest information from Google, Bing and Yahoo and what tools to use to align SEO strategy with where the search engines are headed.
Mobile first and responsive web design aren’t simply two great tastes that go great together. No they represent much more than that. Mobile first responsive web design is the responsible way to build responsive designs.
Mobile first responsive web design is the best way to build something that is both responsive from a layout AND a performance perspective.
But if mobile first is the right way to do responsive design, then why are so few people doing it? In this presentation, we’ll dig into why mobile first responsive design matters and the five techniques necessary to make it work.
Everything You Know is Not Quite Right Anymore: Rethinking Best Practices to ...Dave Olsen
We’re entering a new era where an increasing number of devices with wildly divergent features -- including phones, tablets, game consoles, and TVs -- are connected to the Internet. As the way people access the Internet changes, there is an urgent need to rethink how we use the web to communicate. This doesn't mean creating separate solutions for each device but rather preparing our existing content to meet this increasingly unpredictable future. Dave Olsen and Doug Gapinski will share and examine examples that show how responsive design will help institutions rethink and adjust for the future-friendly web.
Primary topics that are covered are: understanding the reality of web development today, example RWD design patterns, and understanding how to test and optimize the performance of your RWD website.
Everything You Know is Not Quite Right Anymore: Rethinking Best Web Practices...Doug Gapinski
We’ve entered a new era where an increasing number of devices with wildly divergent features— including phones, tablets, game consoles, and TVs—are connected to the Internet. As the way people access the Internet changes, there is an urgent need to rethink how we use the web to communicate.
This doesn't mean creating separate solutions for each device but rather preparing our existing content to meet an unpredictable future. Responsive web design means changing how we plan and evaluate performance. Dave Olsen and Doug Gapinski share and examine examples to help institutions rethink and adjust for the future-friendly web.
Presenters
Dave Olsen
Professional Technologist, West Virginia University
Doug Gapinski
Strategist, mStoner
GIS in the Rockies Geospatial RevolutionPeter Batty
GIS in the Rockies keynote presentation, September 15 in Loveland, CO. Much common content but slightly longer than the one I gave at NSGIC a couple of days previously.
CSS3 Media Queries: Mobile Elixir or CSS Snake Oiljameswillweb
CSS Media Queries have received a justifiable amount of hype lately. However, do they really represent a new way to take your web content mobile or do they promise more than they deliver? In this session lynda.com senior author James Williamson breaks down media queries, how to use them, and where they belong in your mobile development medicine chest.
My first presentation at WhereCamp EU, relating to the work we're doing with Ubisense myWorld. In the title G=Google and the question has two meanings ... if you're a traditional GIS user, should you be using Google Maps or something similar (answer=yes), and given that, should you be using Google specifically (answer is it depends ... we no longer use Google App Engine, we do use Google Maps but have been testing OpenLayers for offline applications).
Welcome to a new reality - DeepCrawl Webinar 2018Bastian Grimm
My webinar with DeepCrawl talking about mobile-friendliness, assessing keyword targeting on mobile, finding content inconsistencies across devices and much, much more!
When it comes to mobile web design and testing, mobility plays by a far different set of rules than the desktops of years past. We are challenged by the variety and multitude of browsers, devices, OS types and OS versions at consumers’ disposal. Simply put: the rules of mobility are not easy to master.
In this eBook, we discuss the following topics:
- Testing mobile websites in adverse operating conditions
- Scripting Reactively
- Prioritizing devices and browsers when testing
- Embracing hybrid mobile app models
- Preventing browser compatibility issues
- Avoiding hidden problems
- Verifying UI actions
- Using a different design for mobile
Strings to Things - The move to Semantic SEO - MozCon 2013Matthew Brown
My presentation at MozCon 2013 - I go into the latest information from Google, Bing and Yahoo and what tools to use to align SEO strategy with where the search engines are headed.
Mobile first and responsive web design aren’t simply two great tastes that go great together. No they represent much more than that. Mobile first responsive web design is the responsible way to build responsive designs.
Mobile first responsive web design is the best way to build something that is both responsive from a layout AND a performance perspective.
But if mobile first is the right way to do responsive design, then why are so few people doing it? In this presentation, we’ll dig into why mobile first responsive design matters and the five techniques necessary to make it work.
Everything You Know is Not Quite Right Anymore: Rethinking Best Practices to ...Dave Olsen
We’re entering a new era where an increasing number of devices with wildly divergent features -- including phones, tablets, game consoles, and TVs -- are connected to the Internet. As the way people access the Internet changes, there is an urgent need to rethink how we use the web to communicate. This doesn't mean creating separate solutions for each device but rather preparing our existing content to meet this increasingly unpredictable future. Dave Olsen and Doug Gapinski will share and examine examples that show how responsive design will help institutions rethink and adjust for the future-friendly web.
Primary topics that are covered are: understanding the reality of web development today, example RWD design patterns, and understanding how to test and optimize the performance of your RWD website.
Everything You Know is Not Quite Right Anymore: Rethinking Best Web Practices...Doug Gapinski
We’ve entered a new era where an increasing number of devices with wildly divergent features— including phones, tablets, game consoles, and TVs—are connected to the Internet. As the way people access the Internet changes, there is an urgent need to rethink how we use the web to communicate.
This doesn't mean creating separate solutions for each device but rather preparing our existing content to meet an unpredictable future. Responsive web design means changing how we plan and evaluate performance. Dave Olsen and Doug Gapinski share and examine examples to help institutions rethink and adjust for the future-friendly web.
Presenters
Dave Olsen
Professional Technologist, West Virginia University
Doug Gapinski
Strategist, mStoner
GIS in the Rockies Geospatial RevolutionPeter Batty
GIS in the Rockies keynote presentation, September 15 in Loveland, CO. Much common content but slightly longer than the one I gave at NSGIC a couple of days previously.
CSS3 Media Queries: Mobile Elixir or CSS Snake Oiljameswillweb
CSS Media Queries have received a justifiable amount of hype lately. However, do they really represent a new way to take your web content mobile or do they promise more than they deliver? In this session lynda.com senior author James Williamson breaks down media queries, how to use them, and where they belong in your mobile development medicine chest.
GITA PNW keynote presentation: Openness in GeospatialPeter Batty
Presentation on different aspects of openness in geospatial. Just a few minor changes compared to my presentation on the same topic in Nottingham a couple of weeks before.
Closing plenary talk at the AGI geocommunity conference immediately prior to FOSS4G 2013 in Nottingham. On various aspects of open geospatial, but especially on Open Source.
Presentation I gave at the Denver OpenStreetMap meetup in June 2011. A bit of something for everyone - some intro slides for newbies and assorted examples of (mainly) new and interesting applications, data usage and development tools.
Smallworld and Google: the best of both worldsPeter Batty
My presentation at the Smallworld User Conference in Baltimore, talking about the benefits of combining the strengths of Smallworld and Google Maps (the work we are doing with Ubisense myWorld).
My keynote presentation at the GITA Geospatial Solutions Conference in Dallas, April 2011. The talk is on the theme of simplicity and includes a look back at how things have changed over the lifetime of the GITA conference.
Latest iteration of my Geospatial Revolution talk that I've been using on my down under tour. Includes various cricket slides, probably comprehensible only to Aussies and Pommies :) !!
Smallworld and Google: the best of both worldsPeter Batty
Presentation at the Smallworld User Conference in Baltimore, September 2010. Discusses work we have done to integrate Smallworld with Google Maps and create a very easy to use application which can access complex utility network data in a simple way. Also discusses advantages of running in the cloud and usability.
11. James Fee
“ArcGIS for iOS is a very impressive
mobile mapping app.
It really shows the attention to
detail ESRI has put into their new
ArcGIS Mobile apps.
Compared to the old Windows CE
and Windows Mobile crap they used
to put out, this was easily used by
my son without any direction.”
52. Raster map tiles
Pre-render maps into image files
Approach used by Google, Microsoft, etc
Very high performance and scalability
Easy to integrate with Google Maps etc
I hate to say it, but many traditional GIS people tend to be bad at usability. We make things too complicated. One of the things that Google and other so-called neogeography systems have done a great job on is simplifying applications. I’ve recently been developing an application called myWorld,
MyWorld uses Arc2Earth as its data repository, which syncs with ArcGIS Online, which you can access from ArcGIS for iPad. James Fee had given this a really good review and usually speaks his mind, so being an iPad kind of person I was pretty excited to try this out.
So panning and zooming is very nice, same as the standard iPad maps application. But then I tried to do the next most obvious thing, which for me is to view the attributes of a feature on the map. Just tapping on the map didn’t work, which is what I hoped for, so then I tried the “I” icon down here.
So panning and zooming is very nice, same as the standard iPad maps application. But then I tried to do the next most obvious thing, which for me is to view the attributes of a feature on the map. Just tapping on the map didn’t work, which is what I hoped for, so then I tried the “I” icon down here.
This screen contains no additional information compared to the previous compact information bubble, except that there are two features here.
This screen contains no additional information compared to the previous compact information bubble, except that there are two features here.
So here are my top three rules for usability testing: one, do usability testing … two, do usability testing, and three, do usability testing. It’s incredibly easy to do this ,yet so often we don’t. I’ve become a real convert to this over the past few years, mainly thanks to my friend Sue Foster.
So here are my top three rules for usability testing: one, do usability testing … two, do usability testing, and three, do usability testing. It’s incredibly easy to do this ,yet so often we don’t. I’ve become a real convert to this over the past few years, mainly thanks to my friend Sue Foster.
So here are my top three rules for usability testing: one, do usability testing … two, do usability testing, and three, do usability testing. It’s incredibly easy to do this ,yet so often we don’t. I’ve become a real convert to this over the past few years, mainly thanks to my friend Sue Foster.
So here’s how you do a usability test: put the application in front of the user, shut up, and watch. It’s just incredibly educational as a developer to watch someone use your system. You keep wanting to say “press this, do that!”. But you really find out that things that are obvious to you may not be obvious to others.
So here’s an example from myWorld. We were really proud of this home page, we thought it clearly explained the three main options for a user. But the first two users we asked to search for things clicked and tried to type here, which is just a dumb graphic, instead of in the real search box which is up at the top.
So a simple example is a coffee machine. This takes a few minutes to warm up, so I’d like to be able to remotely turn it on. I’d also like it to remind me in the evening if the coffee bean containers need filling up, rather than finding this out in the morning when I’m in a rush and impatient for caffeine!
So a simple example is a coffee machine. This takes a few minutes to warm up, so I’d like to be able to remotely turn it on. I’d also like it to remind me in the evening if the coffee bean containers need filling up, rather than finding this out in the morning when I’m in a rush and impatient for caffeine!
May not be such a requirement for public sharing of data in utilities
But think about use of search technologies internally ... how powerful if you could just type a customer address and see a list of related results
Interesting how we can find things on the Internet faster than on our desktop or internal systems
This is a typical utility basemap in Smallworld – fairly sparse. But you can see with the raster tiled approach that the data looks exactly like it does in Smallworld
Adding in a Google Street Map gives a lot more context. Maintaining base maps is not a core activity for utilities, and is very expensive. It really makes sense to use basemaps maintained by somebody else. There are ways that you can add updates where necessary, for example adding a new subdivision which isn’t on the basemap yet.
And Google satellite imagery is good for many applications. I hear a lot of people say that Google imagery is out of date but I think they are updating it more and more frequently.
What if your data doesn’t match the Google landbase? Many utilities have an old and inaccurate landbase and want to transform or conflate their network data to a new and more accurate landbase, for multiple reasons – sharing data with other entities, using GPS, and working with external data like Google Maps, or imagery from other sources. This is an example of some data from PNG, who went through such a conflation exercise. You can see here how much better their pipes align with a Google map background after the conflation progress. That’s not the main focus of my talk today, but
Google street view can give you valuable extra information about facilities. Often you can see details on pole configuration and so on that may not be stored in the database. We’ve integrated tightly with this, so that when you click on a facility you automatically get the right street view displayed. In cases where the data doesn’t line up exactly it’s easy to adjust the view and save that for next time.
A very powerful feature is that you can display icons in the street view itself and mouse over or click them for more information.
In this example we can see several poles further away as we look along the street.