USER-FRIENDLY INTERFACE DEVELOPMENT FOR URBAN INFORMATION SYSTEMS USED IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Local governments in Turkey use different geographical information systems (GIS) and CAD based software. However, most of the software is not designed according to the Turkish law and regulations. Moreover, some degree of expertise is required to use some of these systems. By taking into consideration that these systems will be offered to the use of a wide range of users including experienced and inexperienced, there is a need for user-friendly interfaces to enable the system approachable and manageable by any user. In this study, an easy-to-use and comprehensible interface is developed for ordinary users to enter, update, and retrieve new data, also to produce reports in order to manage an ArcView GIS. The interface is formed using in-house programs developed in ArcView Avenue and Visual Basic. The study area selected for this study is from a part of Tuzla, İstanbul. It is observed that the use of the interface greatly helps the administrators to make sound decisions and thus improve the quality of the services provided. The next step planned in this study is to benefit from the Internet technology by using WapGIS and web tools