Our partners had a wonderful idea for the start page of an online atlas we are working on together. Obviously it’s inspired by iTunes’ Cover Flow, but as we think works well on map indexes too.
It basically works similar to album art, where visual impressions are associated with audio. On the map flow, the visual impression, the color scheme and map type identified on the map thumbnail, can be associated with a certain topic, theme or map in particular – greenish is likely environmental, blue/red tones demographic, etc.
By using AJAX, the map flow is very efficient in terms of occupied space on the page. Instead of long lists and tables, the map flow only needs the size of one paragraph on the page, where users can browse the entire atlas by flipping map thumbnails around (which is fun too btw).
I can’t demo it here, you’ll have to head over to our application to see it in action. A rudimentary English version is available.
There is still much work ahead of us. For the next upcoming release we reduced the amount of newly planned features and try to focus on usability improvements instead. After all, we want an easy to use thematic mapping tool.
It’s still too early to talk in numbers, but I expect the map flow to reduce the bounce rate and make our maps more accessible.
Since end of January one of the largest projects I’m currently involved in is online and open for public access. We decided as first step to publish it silently before the official announcement and receive more user feedback as well as reserve some extra time for fine tuning.
It’s a national atlas (ÖROK-Atlas online is the official name) containing socio-economic information, mainly focused on the Austrian territory but providing a European perspective as well. The entire application is based on 100% Open Source software like MapServer, PostGIS, GDAL, Proj4 and other usual geo open source suspects.
You won’t find any fancy AJAX driven user interface or high-res imagery to sneak a peek into your neighbor’s garden. Instead you’ll be able to visualize a comprehensive collection of predefined maps as entry point to a large database of socio-economic data and indicators relevant to regional analysis and spatial planning. An important user group, already involved in the development process, were decision makers and other administration departments (ministries, federal states).
Traditionally the atlas was published annually on paper. It was one of the main challenges of the project to transform those rather complex printed maps (most of them containing multiple socio-economic information layers, multidimensional signatures, etc.) into an online application in terms of retaining the same information content.
We’re still working in the background – the English version isn’t 100% completed yet, data and maps are extending continuously and some bugs need to be fixed – so please be patient if something isn’t working as expected.
Recently I came across the mapping tool called Social Explorer (via Cartography). It’s based on Flash technology and offers exploration of U.S. census data.
Since more than a year now we are working on a similar application for Austria. It’ll let users explore Austrian and European census data along with other information relevant to spatial development. Within the last year I could observe the focus of development shifting from technology driven discussions (e.g. offering advanced GIS functionality) to cartographic *correct* geodata and finally emphasising on user-needs. After the event people often have the wonderful gift of hindsight, so now I know that we should have put more weight on initial user-requirements discussions. Technology is a fascinating thing and we all were caught by visions of tools we would like to integrate.
A noticeable aspect of the Social Explorer is its simplicity. The first screen of our application contains more or less the same elements. We start with pre-defined maps, the user can switch between various topics and load different maps, we have of course zooming & panning, something similiar to that slide-show tool and the possibility to create reports containing tables and diagrams. But somehow the Social Explorer interface appears more clearly and easier. At a glance you know what you can do and what this tool has to offer, in our application it’s still more trial and error. A colleague hit the nail on the head by mentioning “It’s the American approach, keep it simple. We got the European approach, to make it more complicated than it actually is.”.
During the next months we’ll concentrate more on interface design, clean it up while keeping the same functionality to achieve a higher deegree of usability. In the end, usabality (beside marketing) is crucial for a popular application.
If you’re interested in interface design and mapping/cartographic applications you should definitely have a look at the Atlas of Switzerland, an amazing cartographic product.
Every time thinking about usability, interface design, etc. I recall an interview about Apple’s one button mouse, which they used to produce until last year. Asked why they still put only one button on their mice while other PC-mice offer I don’t know how many buttons and wheels the Apple employee answered: “Considering that Apple users have only one button available, Apple developers are forced to keep the interface of their applications simple in order that users can operate them with only one button.”. A way to guarantee Apple’s hallmark, the ergonomically designed user interface.