Our geographic information system requires a quick transfer between text editing and spatial editing (for a simplified example see distance measurement in Google maps, make sure to switch distance measure ‘on’).

This is not an easy task for the user and not a trivial design for designer. In general you can let users to go through a very smooth process, so they can go between the map and a form or a panel and edit what is relevant. When focusing on the map they edit map objects when focusing on the dialog they edit dialog fields. But what if they want to do other operations on the map before editing, like zoom or pan? In some cases you can incorporate, if editing requires only mouse clicks while zoom is done with mouse ruler and pan with mouse dragging. But that is not always the case.

If you need to use mouse dragging for editing as well, the design should separate editing from other map operations. It is then possible to let the user select (e.g. clicking a button) that she will now initiate map editing, this way it is clear to the user what is the current status of interaction, that’s good right? Not sure. Testing with a few users show that they go straight to the map for editing, they do not look for a button before they start editing. We have both a desktop application and a web application and I suspect that expectation may be different. Still need to check that. I am wondering what to do if we receive different results when testing both platforms. That’s a tough one. Please share your experience with me.