Comparative Study of the Interaction of Digital Natives with Mainstream Web Mapping Services

We present the results of a comparative study among four well-known web mapping services. The study explored how digital natives (young people under 30 years old who were born and raised with technology and smart devices) interact with web mapping services. The sample consisted of 167 University students in the field of Engineering and was conducted entirely online. Results indicate that the nature of tasks performed using mapping services affect both effectiveness and efficiency even when users interact with the same service. Among services, study results also indicate differences between task success rates as well as between successful task completion times. Finally, comparison between male and female participants showed no difference in either effectiveness or efficiency between genders.