Results of the OpenStreetMap Survey
Between June and July, we conducted a survey that received 461 responses from people across 69 countries.
See the results [here]
My name is Paola, and I am a Design student at the University of Brasília (UnB). I am part of a group that, along with students from the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), is working to make OpenStreetMap (OSM) more accessible and intuitive. Our goal is to apply user-centered design principles to facilitate contributions from everyone, creating a more inclusive and efficient experience for the global mapping community.
The survey was designed to understand the needs and challenges faced by OSM users. We started with a round of interviews with Brazilian mappers to identify their profiles and main pain points. Then, we developed a questionnaire to validate the insights we had gathered. We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who took the time to respond to the survey. Your participation was crucial to advancing this project.
Key Findings
Some of the most relevant findings from the survey were:
- User profiles: Most respondents have a high level of education, are fluent in English, and have prior experience with Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
- Use of OSM.org: Many users access the platform to view data, but few utilize the notes feature or resolve them regularly. This indicates potential for improving this functionality to make it more practical and user-friendly.
- Search accuracy: About 18.6% of respondents found search results to be inaccurate. During usability tests, we observed that finding information can be challenging without the exact term or precise location. Furthermore, 61% of participants supported integrating external data to enhance the search experience.
We acknowledge that we could not cover all OSM functionalities, such as map editing, due to the limitations of MS Forms used in this initial survey. Nevertheless, this step was fundamental to better understanding the community’s needs and outlining paths for future improvements.
Next Steps
Improving the platform requires everyone’s collaboration. Therefore, we invite more users to participate in this process by sharing ideas, feedback, and experiences. If you’d like to discuss the research further or share ideas for the future of OSM, Gustavo will represent us at FOSS4G. We would be delighted to hear from you!
The data from this survey is available in our [GitHub repository] for anyone interested in accessing and exploring the information. Together, we can build a better OpenStreetMap!