Project Background

Our Client

This project was undertaken as part of the Master’s Capstone Project program. Our client was the iConsultancy Experiential Learning Program, an organization within The University of Maryland which is responsible for identifying and contracting external clients for project development services in support of the College of Information Studies experiential learning courses.

<aside> 🤔 What They Needed

In order to expand its project service offerings to meet the needs of potential clients, the iConsultancy wanted to develop:

a mobile GIS data collection app for mapping polygonal data.

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Okay, so what exactly is a GIS?

GIS stands for Geographic Information System, and it's a computer-based system that stores, analyzes, and displays geographic data.

GIS systems typically include:

A shareable maps that contain geographic data layers.
Data stored in tables with a geographical component that ties this data to a particular location
Some form of spatial analysis to interpret this data and provide insights
Mobile applications that help collect this data.

What is GIS? by Planetizen Courses

Client Vision: User and Business Goals

Our client had developed a proof of concept with their engineering team that was able to successfully track polygonal geographical data and could send it to a QGIS database along with some metadata collected using an accompanying form.

While this rudimentary implementation formed the core interaction of a GIS field data collection app, our client was looking to expand upon it in order to create a product that achieved a few specific goals. These were:

<aside> 🗣️ User Goals

Customizable: to allow for data collection across multiple use cases. For e.g.: logging invasive plants, trash, water quality etc.

Intuitive: by being pick-and-use ready ******for variety of users with different domain knowledge levels by upholding accessibility and inclusive design guidelines.

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fig: original proof of concept

fig: original proof of concept

<aside> 💼 Business Goals

Higher Adoption: over competitors by users from volunteers organizations, local communities, and NGOs.

Revenue Source: by creation of a robust business model through analysis of customer segments, relationship channels, and revenue streams.

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