6th April 2009, 08:39 PM
I am with you BAJR. In my experience, people's greatest confusion is over what a record actually represents and some of the websites I feel sometimes have a tendency to focus on records above all. What is useful are glossaries, all the way through, to give context to records which many people have probably found via Google rather than going in at the top level of your HER web presence.
Better mapping I feel represents part of the future. The problem is that many local authorities make good use of GIS systems that are just too 'heavy' for web based used e.g. ArcIMS. Instead, Google maps etc seems a really good way to go and is well used on the Highland site.
Exploring the use of Googlemaps as a full featured GIS, capable of querying in complex ways is a really good thing. Research might indicate that peoples' focus, as suspected, is primarily geograhpical and making the records first and foremost presentable in a geographic way might be something worth exploring.
Better mapping I feel represents part of the future. The problem is that many local authorities make good use of GIS systems that are just too 'heavy' for web based used e.g. ArcIMS. Instead, Google maps etc seems a really good way to go and is well used on the Highland site.
Exploring the use of Googlemaps as a full featured GIS, capable of querying in complex ways is a really good thing. Research might indicate that peoples' focus, as suspected, is primarily geograhpical and making the records first and foremost presentable in a geographic way might be something worth exploring.