VUW GED Seminar
Thursday 15th October 2015, 4-5pm
Cotton Seminar Room CO304, Kelburn Campus
Usability issues in Geoinformation Science research
Speaker: Dr Ioannis Delikostidis
Canterbury University
It has been more than half a century since Human
Computer Interaction (HCI) started becoming an integral part of GIS and
Geo-information Science. This relationship kept evolving to meet what is now
called “democratization of Geographic technologies”. It reflects the
transformation of a closed, expert’s domain (Geography/GIS), into an open,
multi-disciplinary mosaic of various fields and practices, animated by rapid
advances in technology. We all now talk about volunteered geographic
information, internet of things and UAVs, virtual environments and natural user
interfaces as a means to interacting with a wealth of information largely
interwoven with “location”. Buzz words such as “big data analytics” strive to
get a real meaning inside a complex ecosystem overwhelmed with technology,
where the end users of the derived information (eminently geo-information) are
mostly regarded as consumers rather than inspirers. Research in both
Geo-information Science and HCI, although widely related, still lacks an integrated
theoretical grounding to support new findings. Moreover, usability of
geo-information and its applications is still not viewed as a core principle
when conducting research, restraining the communication channels between
research and society. What could be done to change the current situation?
Biography: Dr. Ioannis Delikostidis is a lecturer in Geo-Information
Science in the Department of Geography of the University of Canterbury. Prior
to this position, he worked for the Greek Government for several years and was
a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Muenster, Germany. He obtained
his MSc. and PhD in Geo-Information Science from the University of Twente, the
Netherlands, and he holds a BSc in Electronic and Computer Systems Engineering.
Dr. Delikostidis’ research has been focusing on improving the usability of
pedestrian navigation systems, developing context-sensitive means for
interaction with geographic information and implementing sound methods and
techniques for assessing them. He has also done research on immersive virtual
environments (IVEs) to accommodate user interactions with location-based
systems inside the lab. His main research interests lie around User-Centred
Design, use, users and usability research in Geo-Information Science, crowdsourcing
strategies, technologies and issues, sensor networks and data transferring
technologies, and physical computing.
ALL WELCOME
