A framework for the acceptance testing of geospatial search engines

Herrera-Murillo, Dagoberto José (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Nogueras-Iso, Javier (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Abad-Power, Paloma ; Latre, Miguel Á. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Lopez-Pellicer, Francisco J. (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: Geospatial search engines are an essential component of spatial data infrastructures and enable a broad spectrum of environmental applications. The back-end implementation of these search engines has evolved from traditional text-based information retrieval systems into more specialised search engines. However, to assess the actual improvement brought by this evolution, thorough testing is needed. The aim of this work is to propose a framework for the acceptance testing of geospatial search engines that assesses their functionality, effectiveness, and user-friendliness. For each quality attribute, the framework proposes different testing design techniques and guidelines for their practical implementation. To demonstrate its feasibility, it has been applied to the evaluation of a geospatial semantic search engine of the Spanish National Geographic Institute. The evaluated search engine showed a sufficient level of functionality and effectiveness. However, the usability results were barely satisfactory due to perceived problems associated with complexity, inconsistency, and low learnability.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106692

Año: 2025

Publicado en: ENVIRONMENTAL MODELLING & SOFTWARE 194 (2025), 106692 [15 pp.]
ISSN: 1364-8152

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/T59-23R
Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/955569/EU/Towards a sustainable Open Data ECOsystem/ODECO

Tipo y forma: Artículo (Versión definitiva)

Área (Departamento): Área Lenguajes y Sistemas Inf. (Dpto. Informát.Ingenie.Sistms.)