OE3D: The Challenges of Going Macro to Micro
OE3D is the biggest project in terms of scale undertaken by CIMS. The objective was to create an application to showcase Eastern Ontario, an area extending over 50,000 square kilometers. The proposed interface would need to display data about different economic sectors at scales varying from the whole region to individual parts in a building. Furthermore, the application would need to be accessible from anywhere and without the need for specialized software.
Collaborating with representatives of the Ontario East Economic Development group, as well as various municipalities and governments, the CIMS team has developed a cartographic Asset Model linked to a database, as well as a web interface to visualize the model and associated data.
Many challenges faced the design team throughout the development of assets for OE3D. Working with different municipalities, governments and economic development groups meant that the application needed to reconcile the various interests expressed by each stakeholder. The team’s objective was to take the GIS data, spreadsheets, point clouds, 3D models and BIM projects used by the stakeholders and assemble everything in a coherent interface.
The decision was made to work with CesiumJS, a JavaScript tool providing a digital globe for displaying geographic data on the web. To process the information received at the regional, local and building scale, the team assembled it in three different categories. First, themed maps were created to be used as backdrop information on land use, real-estate and infrastructure. The team then extracted basic 3D features like buildings, roads and trees to give context to local information. Finally, a model viewer would allow for visualizing complex BIM of specific properties.
Creating the user interface and user experience for the OE3D application has come with its fair share of challenges. Designing an application to be used by many different users with a long list of feature requirements became one of the biggest design issues. To help narrow down the feature list and design for the majority of the users, the team worked on developing user personas and scenarios. This helped us determine what features were imperative to the application and what could be developed at a later date.
Gathering data from municipalities and integrating it into the application has also been a challenge for the app development team. Sorting through the mass of data that CIMS received from all the municipalities and adding it to the database was a lengthy task that required diligence to avoid duplicate entries and to maintain data security.