Guides
Better Mapping
Maps are one of the most common visualizations in news code, and one of the easiest to get wrong. In a collection that will grow over time, we’ve gathered project walkthroughs and Learning pieces focused on making maps that are clear, nuanced, and useful.
Choosing the Right Map Projection
Map projection choices are tricky in just about every possible way. Michael Corey’s survey touches on the basics (Mercator and beyond) before diving into the technical details of handling projections thoughtfully and well.
Anatomy of the “Living Apart” map
Jeff Larson’s breakdown of his animated choropleth map for ProPublica will be helpful for anyone considering ways to show change over time, with bonus video-editing wisdom.
Mapping Made Simple, Now with Bonus UI
Alan Palazzolo introduces two mapping tools from his team at MinnPost: Simple Map D3, a JavaScript library that makes it easy to build choropleth-style maps in D3, and Tulip, an interface that sits on top of Simple Map and makes the process even simpler.
Mapping the History of Street Names
A detailed breakdown of the quirks and intricacies of working with OpenStreetMap data and Leaflet, plus a whole lot of interface and usability tweaking.
The Code Behind AJAM’s Displaced Syrians App
Letting readers screenshot map views for a gallery of reader-submitted comments or annotations adds a whole lot to a map feature. Al Jazeera America wrote a set of three tools to make that process easier, open-sourced all three of them, and explain here how to use them in your own app.
A Map That Wasn’t a Map
Sometimes the best map for a job…isn’t a map. Or not just a map, at least. Mother Jones’ Tasneem Raja explains her team’s approach to a reusable non-map template.
Spokesman-Review Holiday Lights Map
Why make a one-off when you can make a mapping app your team can re-use over and over? Our own Ryan Pitts talks about spinning a simple holiday lights map into an elegant tool for his newsroom’s reporters.
