Baltimore Map Project - Feedback

[amyleew]

Feedback

Making a map that acts as a tool for people moving to Baltimore is a great idea. Consider how your map will function and sketch out that interaction. This will help you identify what kind of data you will need on your map. You and Amal presented your concept as a housing search. Does that mean identifying or ranking neighborhoods by your key decision-making factors: safety, proximity to cool stuff, and affordability? Or will your map plot data points of cool stuff, price ranges for housing and points of crime in the area? You mentioned using Craigslist and Yelp as data resources for your project.

Decide how you will filter that data for your map and pull it into your map and sketch out these interactions for next class. Make them very low-tech. They are just a tool to help you focus your data needs so you can start building your data. You will put your data in a suitable format for mapping, which can be as simple as making a spreadsheet to import into Mapbox Studio to make a data source or Mapbox Editor

The mapping API, mapbox.js, allows for custom integration of a map and it's data onto a web page. This will allow you to add your data of ideal neighborhoods, cool stuff and even information on housing prices as layers on your map that can be toggled on and off by the user. Here is a mapbox.js example of how to use multiple Mapbox map ids to toggle data layers and base maps in one page displayed on a web page.

Adding @Donnazol and @bdball20 to this ticket for reference, as their Hometown Unknown will use similar methods for adding data.

/cc @ahmayed @nategulledge

[nategulledge]

Having a way for users to select housing prices, either by number range ($1000–$1500) or by dollar signs ($–$$) would be helpful. Sketching out the interaction of your users is a great learning experience, and you can also come up with a few quick user stories to explain the interactions. Think of a single person, a married couple, a couple with two kids, etc. What is their story and how would your map help them?

Is there a way to show how a neighborhood has changed regarding crime, cool stuff, and price over a time span of a few years? Maybe that's something to consider for a version 2.0.

@Karahmel and @ahmayed /cc @amyleew @Donnazol @bdball20

[Karahmel]

@amyleew @nategulledge thanks for the feedback!

[Karahmel]

I'm so frustrated, I can't even tell you. I just completely recreated a data set since mapbox was being finnicky, and now that one is giving me an error message too.

What can I do if the system isn't working with me? I am getting so discouraged because I've spent so much time on these things that aren't working, and I hesitate to spend more time redoing it just to have everything get lost again. @amyleew

[amyleew]

@Karahmel Where are you in the process? Are you trying to download the .json data from mapbox.com/editor? Have you tried this fix?

Send me the link circled in red from your mapbox.com/projects page for the data you wish to retrieve, I can try to get the .json file for you.

We can also discuss next steps if you give me a clear assessment of where you are and what you still have left to do for a completed map.

[Karahmel]

This is my map right now: http://karahmel.github.io/Blog/maptrial.html

I worked for a while in tilemill because I liked the interactivity it allowed, but then I couldn't upload that to mapbox as a data layer.

I don't like the map "final" right now because there is really no information. I don't like the way the neighborhood labels are displayed and do not like the way the labels on the top 50 bars come up. I'd rather they were mouseover data points, so I'm considering doing individual data points for every place of interest, like here: http://karahmel.github.io/Blog/anothershot.html

But that will take time and I don't know if they will show up as a layer.

@amyleew

[Karahmel]

@amyleew I can get the json files, that hasn't been part of my issue. The issue is getting the layers in the final map to look anything like the layers as they were in mapbox, like so: https://api.tiles.mapbox.com/v4/ksalaets.kg39bj3l/page.html?access_token=pk.eyJ1Ijoia3NhbGFldHMiLCJhIjoiQUFqSDRwSSJ9.nkCxxqeEnyrErS-N5T0c3A#16/39.2712/-76.6003

With mouseover data and the same color markers with icons etc.

I am trying my best to style things in mapbox studio but it's nowhere near as clear and well organized.

[amyleew]

@Karahmel I'm made an Bmore Attractions map style using your .json data. Swap in mslee.2a7c6585 as a layer on your map I've pulled in variable data from the .json style to help style it more like your vision.

I recorded my screen as I did this and will send a link to a how-to video shortly... Sound good?

[Karahmel]

Hi, thanks for doing that but the big problem we're having is how to store all the data in the description. That is where most of our information about neighborhoods was going to live, and we were going to put big descriptions in for the restaurants and attractions, per our conversation with Ian. Now we're trying to figure out how to get that back but still be a layer.

On Sun, Dec 14, 2014 at 10:37 PM, Amy Lee Walton notifications@github.com wrote:

@Karahmel https://github.com/Karahmel I'm made an Bmore Attractions map style https://api.tiles.mapbox.com/v4/mslee.2a7c6585/page.html?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoibXNsZWUiLCJhIjoiclpiTWV5SSJ9.P_h8r37vD8jpIH1A6i1VRg#13/39.3006/-76.5941 using your .json data. Swap in mslee.2a7c6585 as a layer on your map I've pulled in variable data from the .json style to help style it more like your vision.

[image: image] https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/4587826/5430582/a7186b3e-83e1-11e4-9d48-8e27cc6ddc4b.png

I recorded my screen as I did this and will send a link to a how-to video shortly... Sound good?

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/Karahmel/Blog/issues/1#issuecomment-66946346.

[amyleew]

@Karahmel Couldn't finish the video last night. And I'm working today but was going to wrap it up if I have a free moment. Here are the style, data and source files for the example I did last night.

Will a video of this still be helpful?

You can also add the description data using http://geojson.io just load in your .json from Mapbox.com/editor and add a description field, and load it into Mapbox Studio source file.

[Karahmel]

I'm don't think I'll be sure if that video will be helpful until I see it, lol, so I don't know what to tell you.

For the description, how do you make it show up only with mouseovers? It would be too much data to have show up all the time.

On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 11:58 AM, Amy Lee Walton notifications@github.com wrote:

@Karahmel https://github.com/Karahmel Couldn't finish the video last night. And I'm working today but was going to wrap it up if I have a free moment. Here are the style, data and source files https://www.dropbox.com/s/c07wriqf74xa8l2/mapbox-projects.zip?dl=0 for the example I did last night.

Will a video of this still be helpful?

You can also add the description data using http://geojson.io just load in your .json from Mapbox.com/editor and add a description field, and load it into Mapbox Studio source file.

— Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/Karahmel/Blog/issues/1#issuecomment-67026428.

[amyleew]

@Karahmel - Do you plan to style the icons and such like I did for the Bmore Attractions example? I'll finish the video, but won't be until this evening after work.

For the description, how do you make it show up only with mouseovers?

It will need to be added as interactive layer in the .yml file and show up with a bit of .js code: https://www.mapbox.com/mapbox.js/api/v2.1.4/l-popup/

[amyleew]

@Karahmel - Hope this helps... https://vimeo.com/114627125

See you tomorrow!