Environmental Informatics Consulting
Jeffrey D. Campbell, Ph.D.
Home About Jeff Campbell Services Community Involvement Workshops
Database Analysis Systems Design Information Visualization Web Design Speaking Writing
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Environmental Informatics Consulting Jeffrey D. Campbell, Ph.D. Home About Jeff Campbell Services Community Involvement Workshops Database Analysis Systems Design Information Visualization Web Design Speaking Writing |
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Understanding the real requirements for a system, including databases and web sites, is critical to success. With 25 years of systems experience and having taught undergraduate and graduate courses in systems design at three universities, thorough requirements analysis is implicit in success of the projects described on the database, information visualization and web design pages.
Designing systems to make it easier for people to use and more effective in communicating information has been the core of Jeff's research in academia and another teaching focus. Practical experience includes the review of a system of visualizing earthquake faults which resulted in substantial improvements in usability. He performed a preliminary usability review of a web site collecting scientific data from "citizen scientist" volunteers and identified a number of significant problems that were both impacting data quality and making data entry more difficult and more error prone. Jeff has expertise in a variety of formal and informal usability evaluation techniques.
Frequently, no single commercially available system will meet all of the requirements. However, components can be combined ("integrated") to produce a solution that is of higher quality and more cost effective than developing it from scratch. Jeff's combination of a Microsoft Access database, the Map Window GIS component and some custom programming to create the interactive Amphibian Calling Activity program is a good example. Another example from his business systems consulting work involved developing additional reports that his client needed that were not included in the selected job costing system which otherwise was by far the best available system for their needs.
Real-time remote collaboration allows multiple people in different locations to work together on the same document at the same time. Jeff's recent research has involved multiple people sharing a GIS system and found substantial benefits from working together.
