ABSTRACT A Geographical Information System (GIS) is a computer system capable of creating, capturing and storing, analyzing, managing, and displaying geographically referenced information. A GIS tool offers interactive user interfaces to submit queries, analyze and edit data. The usability criterion of a GIS tool is an important factor for analyzing geographical information. This paper presents a methodology for evaluating the usability of a GIS tool and proposes some guidelines to find out the severity ratings of problems in a GIS tool. The paper also demonstrates how to scrutinize the usability to discover potential problems using a prototype user interface. Based on the study, experience, and observation, this paper also proposes a number of general usability evaluation guidelines for GIS tools.
