Magically Minimalist Maps with Mapbox and other Delights in 2019.2
Tableau continues to give me small ways to make a big impact on my work. Take for example buttons. They’ve matured so they can now make drop down menus. Oh kids, you know what this means!
Besides the need to get rid of allowing me to nix 5,001 tooltips, 2019.2 also provides some other cool features, including what is bound to be one of my new favorites: Mapbox maps by default.
Scalable. Sleek. Smooth. These maps are like satin sheets with the thread count to back it up. Roads become visible, defined, and clear. I can find my house and, perhaps more importantly today, my favorite ice cream shop. It’s summer, you expected this.
So, with the clock ticking for this webinar, I decided to celebrate the summer with one of my favorite workouts – Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream.
I wanted to capture the essence of the shops. Jeni’s Scoop Shops are elegant with a touch of hometown kitsch to create a look that is inviting, warm, and ideal for gathering. There’s outdoor lights to create a bit of magic and milk bottles as lights as well.
2019.2 allowed me to put in some hidden gems, such as a collapsable explanation and Mapbox by default. Here’s the neat part about Mapbox: it has more layer level choices. It also is vector, which means it scales without blurring. HOORAY vector and choices!
The happy coincidence of removing the base while still keeping some of the land layer means the primary map looks chalky. If I leave certain lines off and restrict extra data (all those state names you forgot) then it looks like some child (okay, maybe this child) doodled a map on the wall. As usual, the trick is getting rid of the base and clearing the worksheet color. You’re welcome.
The posters in back with ice cream cones lends itself to tucking in some data. To get the orange highlight, I hit my super high tech artisanal software called PowerPoint and played with shapes. You’re seeing a pattern here, I suspect. Design bits added, the rest of the graphics use this illusion of depth from the orange to look like they belong.
This is an extremely spartan data set – just shop locations and some Google ratings that I laboriously pulled down and exported. I’m sure smarter people could offer up better ways to get the KML or, if my Jeni’s shops love me, maybe they’ll give me more to go on (hint, hint – I’d love some dates and flavor histories).
Since Jeni’s shops cluster like rabbits, I added in a bonus wall menu. This is really my test to see if people click on things. I took the time to edit the original icon to go transparent when activated. This serves to remove distraction (have you ever tried to read very light text with a big orange circle?) and calls out the last hidden gem.
Wait, there’s more you say? Well, I had to test parameter actions, so hover over the string of lights. The menu starts to shrink as you find shops with that rating or above. The map also loses some dots as you do this as well. Who knew how picky we were in Central Ohio? I imagine by having so many shops, we’ve turned into snots about what we want. I also blame the lack of parking in many of these places. Maybe next time, I’ll be less lazy and pull down detailed reviews.
And a sprinkle on top: some tips on branding and world-building
- Understand the ethos of the place. What makes it tick?
- Look at collateral. I totally used the Jeni’s logo and one of their shop images to set the tone.
- Use what you have. Orange is the color of Jeni’s.
- Don’t over-use what you have. Orange is the color of Jeni’s, but it doesn’t mean everything is orange. Only important things are orange and other colors are used to support the message.
- Focus on what you want to convey. This is a very small viz about shops with some ratings thrown in. That’s it. It’s hyper focused on scoop shops so that you can find one. My Columbus kids and visitors know how hard this is.
- Push it back until people complain loudly. Then bring it back up a single notch. Less is so much more.
Spun with love and a whole lotta sugar,
Dairy Heir Apparent
