Soil Information User Consideration

The user considerations on soil information are essential when setting up a Soil Information System (SIS). The user considerations or needs can contribute to strategic, technical, operational, and institutional requirements for a SIS. If the (end) user considerations are not consulted, the success and the sustainability of a SIS could be jeopardized.

Two examples are given here to illustrate this. At a national level, the Ministry of Agriculture has established that there is a need for a SIS which can be used by farmers. This SIS should be a central place for all relevant soil information that farmers can consult. However, the foremost need of the farmer is to have fertilizer or other land management recommendations, not information on basic soil properties. The farmer may find the SIS too complicated, does not know how to use it, or the content might not suit his/her needs. As a result, the farmer will not utilize it, but extension workers and land use planners will. Another example is that a SIS infrastructure is set-up to share soil data, but the data producers do not trust the system or its funders to share their data safely, thus the SIS is not used. Metadata publication functionalities in a SIS could overcome this issue as data ownership and licenses to use the data are clearly stated.

End user needs are regularly overlooked and often not considered during the conceptualization and design of a SIS. The user needs inform the SIS designers and developers about which data is needed, which maps should be provided​ and how​, what functionalities the SIS should have and for which applications the SIS is needed. It is often assumed too soon that the end user needs are known and, for that reason, do not need to be consulted. When not taking the (end) user needs into account, for instance by actively engaging with users, the SIS could fail to serve the purposes and needs of users. User needs are, therefore, the base of the success and sustainability of a SIS.

It is possible that the user needs change during the lifetime of the system. By assessing the user needs during multiple phases of the lifetime, the updated user needs can be taken along in the system to create the maximum impact.

One method to obtain user needs is by means of a user needs assessment. A user needs assessment is a process through which user needs are identified. It can help to understand the current situation and to identify gaps. It is a tool for making decisions about how to serve the potential users of an information system (Watkins et al., 2012).

The user needs assessment of a SIS to investigate potential success and sustainability of a system, can follow these steps:

• Identify potential user groups;
• Collect users’ needs through surveys or workshops;
• Define use cases to address the needs;

Prior and after release of a system, feedback should be collected to evaluate the effectiveness of the system.

• User tests (prior to release)
• Monitor usage statistics and error logs (which aspects are successfull)
• Enable a feedback option, publish feedback at an online location (Q&A)
• User surveys