Improving geoscience data access and interoperability through the Flyover Country mobile app

Abstract

The Flyover Country mobile app displays geospatial geoscience data on a map-based user interface for use in understanding landscape features from the vantage point of the airplane window seat, hiking trail vista, or remote field research location. These uses require a complex set of features, visualization strategies, and app workflows. In 2017, the app was redesigned from the ground up to incorporate many lessons learned, usability improvements, and a more sustainable and expandable codebase based on two years of feedback and observations from the first version of the app. This thesis outlines lessons learned and a use-case scenario demonstrating the benefits of our new design choices. The app’s effects on increasing interoperability of data in the broader geoscience data community are demonstrated, alongside as recommendations for serving geoscience data for use in mobile apps.