Map navigation is simple, DON'T COMPLICATE IT WITH "TOOLS"

In the past 6 months, I have worked on 8 different mapping applications and in all but one, I have convinced the powers that be to omit the old school style of map navigation "tools".

You know, these:



I will be honest, in IE5, or before Google, Microsoft, Mapquest, and Yahoo all changed their navigation to the new style, these tools made sense. In 2009 they don't. Once I select a zoom in tool, and I want to pan, I never remember to switch to the pan tool, and I end up zooming farther than I want, then I have to go back, and then switch to the pan tool. Huge annoyance.

The ONLY argument I have heard in favor of these old school tools is this:

"The old version of *insert application name here* had these tools."

The old version of your car used leaded gas, the old version of your TV was in black and white, and the old version of your house had lead based paint and asbestos insulation. That reasoning SUCKS. If I can't click and drag at any time and pan around, your navigation is faulty. If I can't use my scroll wheel to zoom in or out, your navigation is faulty. See where I am going here?

If you are naive enough to think your users don't use any other map applications than the old version of your page with antiquated navigation tools, YOU'RE WRONG. Please get your head out of your ass, and move to the new navigation style. you'll never have to explain what a "pan" tool is again.

Silverlight API and Bing Maps

Just finished up working on a silverlight API application using Bing Maps. This is the first major project I've worked on that used ArcGIS Online instead of ArcGIS Server and everything went pretty smoothly. The client's data sits in SQL server and we query the data using WCF services. I am VERY impressed with the speed and quality of the Bing Maps services, and I was pleasantly surprised by the Silverlight development process. We hit a few snags on some things, printing being the biggest, but had workarounds and got through it. If you are really interested I can send you a link to our demo server if you want to email me at aconner@geodecisions.com but I don't really want to put the URL out to the public just yet.

New ArcGIS Server App

I am just wrapping up a deployment for a county in PA. The link to their new site is here The URL may change and I will update this post if it does. It uses the ArcGIS Server JavaScript API. We developed it so it was completed customizable and configurable with one json config file. Next we are going to be setting up a wizard for editing the config file. We are hoping to be able to use this application core for a lot of clients in the future. Let me know what you think

IGIC

I will be at the Iowa geographic information council (igic) conference in Waterloo, IA this week. I am also presenting on using ArcGIS server for public mapping apps on Wednesday. I know it's not quite the esri devsummit, but I will be tweeting about it using #igic from username adcon . Follow me if you're interested.

ArcGIS Server on the iPhone

This Link goes to a test I am doing of using the ArcGIS Server JavaScript API on the iPhone(if you go to it in a normal browser, there will be errors, because the iphone events aren't supported). It only displays the map, and allows you to zoom in, out, and pan. I basically covered the map div with a transparent div that I can capture the iphone gestures on, and then manipulate the map.

To zoom in: double tap the screen, or do a reverse "pinch"
To zoom out: pinch your fingers together
to pan: drag 1 finger across the screen

I wish the touchchange event fired more often, so the panning was more fluid, but I'll take what I can get for now. Leave comments below on what you think.