Spatial Thinking and the GIS User Interface

Geographic information science can be defined as the study of the fundamental issues of geographic information, and is often motivated by the need to improve geographic information technologies. One such issue concerns the design of the user interface, and the relationship between the tasks performed by the technologies on the one hand, and the concepts that humans use in thinking about those tasks on the other. Nowhere is this issue more important than in the design of GIS user interfaces and functionality. Recent efforts have led to a comprehensive understanding of the concepts of spatial thinking, and of how these concepts might form the basis for a much-improved functionality and user interface. The presentation summarizes those efforts, and points to a future in which GIS will be much easier to teach, master, and use.