9 March 2007

Yet another Canberra Mapping product

| johnboy
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Endless is the speculation as the what the folks at the ACT Planning and Land Authority do with their days.

Dan has sent in one possibility, a shiny new Canberra map site to compete all the others, although this one uses the very shiny Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to deliver the maps.

There’s a lot of stuff in there although a legend would be very handy indeed. And the interface? Well, lets just say it shows all the signs of having been decreed by a committee of people not overly familiar with either interface design, or the particular interface they were designing.

Also, if you were a developer would you trust the maps to be up to date?

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To understand the legend, click on the name of the feature type down the left side – the legend for that type will drop down showing the colours for each type.
Agree some of the functions have poor operation -zoom requires multiple clicking. But I’ve spent a lot of time working with several expensive GIS programs and they all drive me bonkers with counter-intuitive interfaces…
But the fact that they provide such a good tool for free is excellent I think.
People on RA are pretty quick with the criticisms, but just occasionally I think some recognition is due that some of the people in the government are doing good things. (No I don’t work for the ACT Gov)
And JB I don’t think such a tool is ACTPLA wasting away their days. Anyone looking to buy in ACT would find this tool invaluable – there is information in there you’ll never get on allhomes or google maps.
And yes it is pretty up to date for something just released. There are blocks in Franklin in there that are still just bulldozer tracks and willy-willies.

and you can choose an address to zoom in on – click the search button (the binoculars). all it takes is a quick look at the instructions guys!

not sure what you’re all whinging about – there is a legend. It’s on the left hand side under the heading “Legend”. Maybe not as self explanatory as it could be but it’s there and it works.

It would be good if i could type in an address or block/section of a property to locate it. I agree the map window is too small.

DarkLadyWolfMother8:37 am 09 Mar 07

They seem to mark only a few houses on the map, and curiously, while they have the shape of mine right, they’ve situated it incorrectly on the block…

For fracks sack! Clicked on the linked above and then tried oh tried to go back to RA. It is like one of those porn site (so I am told) than dont allow you to do it. Had to go to Favourites to get back here.

Well, it’s heaps better than ACT Locate — it actually downloads before the kettle boils. The zoom funtion also actually works. It’s a pity the map window is so small, but that seems to be the standard these days. I would give them marks for trying.

A legend would be helpful, though…

Man, that really is an abjectly terrible interface. I particularly like the way that after selecting the “pan” tool, you click and drag the map a little and it pans…fine, but then you have to select the pan tool again to keep panning. Every single time you release the mouse. Would it be so difficult to have it work a little like Google maps? It’s not like these particular interface problems haven’t been solved many times over (and all in better ways than the one presented here).

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