Tag Archive for 'Webmapping'

Tab stop

Published on November 25, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Tab (242/366) by ChealionWhat if you search for directions from place A to place B while you are only able to use a keyboard as input and navigation device on websites?

MAIN_web, an Austrian initiative for media accessibility, asked to try and navigate the web only by using the tab key. I tried to get directions on three popular mapping sites: Google, Microsoft Live Maps and Mapquest. That’s how it went…

Google Maps

Google Maps initially focuses on the search bar and you can start typing the search query right away. Use “to” between both addresses and Google reads it as search for directions between 2 places. No tab yet needed (“enter” triggered the search) to get the first results. Unfortunately there are more options for one of both places and Google suggested some alternative addresses. Hoping down to the right suggestion took about 33 tabs. After that, the right directions showed up on the map, together with textual descriptions beside. The problem then was that it’s not possible to look up detailed views of the route only by navigating with the keyboard though.

Microsoft Live Maps

The site doesn’t focus on the search bar. It takes 9 tabs to reach the point where you can start typing the search query. The search engine didn’t understand “to” as search for directions, so I had to enable direction search first: 7 more tabs. From there you hop 19 tabs around the page to access the “start” field and one more to enter the “end” address. One address wasn’t found immediately, but the suggested correct address was only 4 tabs away. As before, the result page shows the route on the map and descriptions, but it’s not possible to access further or more detailed information on certain route items by only using the keyboard.

Mapquest

Mapquest puts the focus on the search bar. For directions you have to use the form below on the page: 5 tabs away before you can start typing start and end locations in different form fields. As before, one address wasn’t unique and Mapquest offers several suggestions. Unfortunately there’s no way to access those by using the keyboard only, the page sends you around in circles in the header area. So no directions from Mapquest at all.

It’s an interesting experiment and gives a feeling about web accessibility. I checked some other (own) mapping sites too and I guess there are some things we should look into. At least the main information or purpose of a site should be accessible that way.

Map index usability

Published on April 17, 2008 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , .

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.

ÖROK Atlas Map Flow

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.

Public transport directions

Published on January 3, 2007 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Yesterday the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) launched Scotty, a new public transport routing application. It covers Austrian city transport systems, bus lines, inland waterway transport and ferries, European railways and most of swiss bus transport. Until the UEFA EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland it’ll include 100% of Swiss and Austrian public transport (Graz and bus lines in Tyrol still need to be added).

The database works pretty impressive: you enter start and end address, Scotty returns the closest public transport stations (including walking distance) and finds the fastest route through all possible public transport systems (including public and private busses, railways, subways, trams, ferries, etc.). I think it’s pretty impressive to combine all that information and data sources from various operators and companies into one single application. That’s probably the most difficult part.

On the output side you get textual information as list where to go and where and when to change the train, bus, etc. Additionally you can open an overview map of your entire route or some detailed maps of station surroundings.

Now here is still some room for improvements on usability and mapping features. In times of AJAX, tiling or vector graphics driven web mapping I would expect a user-friendlier map.

Besides and considering Scotty to support and guide a huge amount of visitors in 2008 some more innovative features would be useful too.

Like reverse geocoding and trigger routing directly in the map for instance: I bet the chance that a visitor can pinpoint his hotel and the places to visit is higher than he is able to spell the german address correctly. Similar to the routing solution on Live Local, which is very well done btw.

Google Textual Maps UI

Published on December 27, 2006 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Web accessibility is a big issue for public authorities’ IT services. Since eEurope 2002 every new developed web content must claim conformance to Conformance Level A, which means quite a challenge for public webmapping services.

Now Google has added text output to Google Maps too: depending on your search and how much textual information is available in your results, the map is becoming smaller in favor of more textual information. Searching for a place won’t give you any text information at all (how would you seriously describe the result of a place search?), while searching for directions results in 100% speech-friendly textual routing information. (via Official Google Blog)

Quick and dirty SVG

Published on December 11, 2006 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , .

What I certainly do love about SVG is the fact that you can put nice looking interactive maps in a very simple and quick way together.

Today I wrote this small SVG map module (in German language and just a small part of an information system) and set it on top of a database containing various regional indicators. Main purpose of the database is to arrange user-defined indicators to customized tables together. The map is kind of a little bonus addition and should help to get a better picture about spatial distribution of certain indicators.

But the point is that this can be done in a day without the need of setting up and configuring a mapserver or web-GIS. Developing 2 or 3 days longer there even would be some more layers, features, colors, etc. and perhaps a cleaner coding style.

Especially when it comes to thematic maps, SVG is IMHO the best choice. Whenever you want to change some thresholds in your legend, or load some new statistical data into your existing regional units, a mapserver has to refresh the whole image. It’s pretty annoying compared to SVG which lets you simply load or reclassify data on-the-fly without the need of reloading any element of the user interface – AJAX, to name a buzzword.

Of course, since most of the work is done on the client-side, map performance is limited there and not on the server-side. But if you look at office machines running at 3GHz, this shouldn’t cause too much headache.

However, SVG enables simple and straight interfaces. Many of our clients get confused by most mapserver interfaces and highly appreciate those simple systems. That’s why we were asked for an easy solution this time. Just to quickly view some regional indicators on the map, without any fancy features.

Weather maps

Published on August 4, 2006 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , .

Deutsche Gründlichkeit
Now that’s what I call a precise weather map!
German perfectionism at its best.

Where 2.0 day #1

Published on June 14, 2006 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

Where 2.0 audienceIt’s hard to wrap up a whole day at Where 2.0 since it was packed with interesting presentations.

My personal highlights of today were the panel discussion “Social Data Face-Off” and the presentation done by MetaCarta.

I think this was not the last discussion we heard about copyright of data provided by users. Though it was interesting to hear how this issue is handled by various services so far. Beside user data, how is “copied” data like place names and street names from background maps (provided Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, etc.). Is it legal to pinpoint “San Jose” above a Google Map, getting the coordinates out of the data set Google Map is based on, and name this point “San Jose”, the name which appears on the Google Map and was put there by a third party? Can we be sure that there is no copyright on this data as Di-Ann Eisnor from Platial said?

One way to avoid this kind of uncomfortable questions can be the use of OpenLayers by MetaCarta. They provide a free API to free geodata. If you can’t use Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps or any other available mapping API because of licensing reasons, you should give this BSD licensed API a try. Together with OpenStreetMap it can be a powerful package.

Another fantastic API released by MetaCarta is their GeoParser, which basically parses text for place names them and maps them. I have to try this with our data and studies.

Talks like those about the least cost path calculations doing in GRASS or the raster based demographic data offered a sneak peek into the GIS world for the audience, which is obviously not very familiar with GIS processing and methods. Hey, never forget that behind all those mashups it needs a lot of GIS work in order to build *only* the base-maps. On the other hand, coming from the traditional GIS world, I’m very excited about all this developments going on right now. The growing participative aspect of mapping and geographic information will sooner or later make its way into the world of spatial planning. I’m pretty sure about that.

As Ed Parsons already wrote, the announcement of Google Maps Enterprise solutions probably made some phones ring in certain GIS companies. A big player like Google entering the professional mapping market (additionally to their free geocoder!) will surely lead to some interesting developments.

Let’s start day #2.

Windows Live SVG Local

Published on May 28, 2006 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , , , .

Windows Live SVG LocalJeff Schiller found out that driving directions are drawn using SVG in Windows Live Local. Interesting and great to see but it leads me to one question: what happened to Microsoft’s VML? Are they dropping (or not any longer forcing) their own technology in favor of an open standard?

Btw, I never had a closer look at Windows Live Local (they should probably flag their product announcements with “works now outside of IE too!”, I’m not even trying to access their services without IE anymore because of too bad experiences in the past) and I must admit that I’m pretty surprised. From a cartographic point of view the maps are looking very nice. In my opinion the map design is much better than in the rest of those search engine mapping services. Aren’t they all using the same or similar sources such as Digital Globe, NAVTEQ, TeleAtlas etc.?

Microsoft offers a lot features within Live Local:

  • of course a search for addresses and businesses,
  • driving directions,
  • it shows you traffic information,
  • you can mark places, add them to collections and if you’re a registered MSN user you can save and share them (features known from Platial?),
  • and not to forget the famous birds eye view.

Features are good, basically. Too many features are bad. I’m afraid if too many marketing champions get involved in the development of Windows Live Local they will kill the service by a feature overkill. The options I have on the site are already quite versatile. They reach from searching an address, marking and sharing places to visualize traffic information.

I still prefer the “keep it simple” design principle. The worst question a user can ask or think about while accessing your site is: “What can I do here?”. The very basic service or aim of your site must be clear from the beginning. If it’s hidden inside a forest of features then you are having a problem.

Regional information presentation

Published on May 11, 2006 in Geotech. Closed Tags: , , .

It’s often hard to communicate a general regional portrait, to give an overview about a region. It’s far more easier to present certain regional details such as labour market issues for instance. You have defined data sets as input which allow you to produce a given amount of indicators.

The question what makes up the regional structure, where are regional highlights or which places are of special interest is in most cases difficult to answer. A broad regional analysis would be one, certainly a good, way to answer. Most regional analysis result in diverse indicator sets which require additional information in order to understand them properly. An all-embracing study is the product experts are happy with. But what if you want to feed a wider audience with your information than experts only? Beside textual information, predefined maps are indeed a good choice to do so. If your user’s motivation or interest is higher as expected you can additional offer access to raw information and let them explore regional data and indicator sets via a webmapping server for instance.

Love-Factor Győr

See for instance the regional presentation of CENTROPE:

CENTROPEThe enlargement of the EU has created new opportunities for enhanced integration and collaboration in the border quadrangle between the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria. The Central European Region emerges as a common economic space and place to live in, growing together towards a unique, attractive and strong region furthered by intensive cooperation.

On the website you’ll find detailed information about the region and the idea behind. It takes you quite a time reading (and understanding) all documents but you should get a picture of the region. Or not?
If you’re happier exploring statistical and geographic data you still can access CENTROPE MAP WEB.

Another, in my opinion wonderful, way to give an overview about the region is this short film based on selected statistical information. It’s a pleasure watching and makes you wanting to visit the region. At least in my case.

Sharing privacy

Published on April 2, 2006 in Geotech and Other. Closed Tags: , , , , , .

Lately I registered at Platial, a social networking platform that allows you to share places. It works quite similar to del.icio.us‘s bookmark sharing, Flickr‘s photo sharing or last.fm‘s music sharing. You can add every kind of place, you can tag them, comment, collect them in maps, publish maps where others can add still more places. You can do a lot of nice things with Platial. [Read more about Platial on Wired]

While exploring some maps and places people added, this marker came up in the recent places category:

SexOffender_Address_#1

Ok, hmmm, so what’s that supposed to mean. Well, I’m certainly not defending sexual offenders, but I doubt that a service like Platial is the right platform to list and pinpoint such citizens. How would I feel if I find a label saying “sexual offender” or “released murderer” floating over my or my neighbours address? There is no way to check this accusations or to find further information about it on Platial. Nor isn’t Platial designed to provide appropriate legal documents either. Such a label only makes room for several speculations, resulting in insecurity.

Platial is based on geographic information, enriched by personal experiences in order to enable social networking. The problem I see is that unlike other social networking platforms, Platial allows sharing others privacy. I can pinpoint my neighbours house and tag it with “tasteless architecture”. Primarily I would share my personal experience, but do I have the right to share my neighbours location too? Of course I could take a picture of my neighbours house, upload it to Flickr and tag it with “tasteless architecture”. But as long as I don’t add name and address nobody’s privacy would be violated. The photo description on Flickr, where I add name and address, would classify as additional information because Flickr is about photo sharing, not photo-description sharing. Furthermore, if my neighbour finds out about his house, address and my tag on Flickr he still could flag the photo as “may offend” and let the Flickr administration team know.

In del.icio.us I share my bookmarks, my favorite sites in the internet, something very abstract. I can’t share somebody else’s bookmarks. On last.fm the root of any social activity is sharing my taste of music. I can’t share the genres somebody else is listening to. It’s impossible and wouldn’t make sense.

In Platial the required information to enable social networking is the location. Combined with the single word “fraud” as place name this basic information can already do a lot of harm and heavily violate someone’s privacy. That’s the main difference between Platial and other social networking sites I think.

Platial is a great idea (hopefully it’ll be successful in Europe too, so far there are not many european Platial users) but something has to be done to prevent abuse and respect the privacy of people who don’t want to get involved.

Update #1:
Luistxo from Tagzania encounterd the very same problem: sex offenders of Detroit have been mapped by a user on Tagzania. [Read the post en español].
The first comment on that post is quite interesting. It points to Google Maps API Terms of Use where you’ll read:

You agree that when using the Service, You will not:
defame, abuse, harass, stalk, threaten or otherwise violate the legal rights (such as rights of privacy and publicity) of others

Says it all, or maybe not? Marking out some addresses and labeling them with the word “sex offender” isn’t violating any rights in Google’s eyes.