I still don't understand how the dots help when multiple dots need to be at the exact same coordinates at the lowest zoom level. How do you open a list of them?
I'm working on a project (using Protimaps and MapLibre, even, so this is very timely for me) where users create groups at physical locations. If 12 groups choose the local public library's schedulable meeting room as their meeting space, how would anyone click to see the list of groups that use that one room? Wouldn't I just end up with what looks like one very dark dot?
(op here)
I typically deal with dots at the same place as a single dot and, when clicked, open an infowindow/infopanel that will let people see all of the points’ data.
ie you do need to deal with this issue (by default, no mapping library will do it for you) - and most clustering librairies (or at least their default settings) will also not solve this for you.
The ui for what happens when a point (or even a cluster) is clicked but that point contains more than one point’s worth of data is its own separate problem basically
Does it end up a darker or at least fully opaque dot to show it's not the same as the individual dots elsewhere? Like from your example in the article, I might make that dot maroon (or some other color entirely) instead of red so people understand "there are multiple things here."
This has been my first adventure dealing with maps with user-generated points and I'm discovering how much goes on behind the scenes that I never noticed!
It’s not easy for sure and I’m not a designer or ui/ux expert - just been around maps for a while
I agree with you that the point itself could show that it’s special - or - rely on users tapping/clicking it and then show all the info
In a sense, maybe conveying that the point has more than one data point attached to it isn’t critical - as long as you can see everything inside when clicking it!
Feel free to email me, would love to jam/chat about this!
Checkout how leaflet does this, it is the "spiderfy" part of markercluster. So you click down into the number bubble, and at the lowest zoom explodes out into multiple point markers.
I think for my purposes, people would rather see a list of the groups meeting at that place than click individual identical markers arranged around the point to see what's there.
I can see why this would be helpful in other use cases though!
That is a good point (spiderfy is good if you want to show multiple icons and click on each one specifically).
If you do not like the cluster-marker, you could have an icon just list the total number at that location, and then on hover (or click for tooltip) show the table. And that may honestly be better than the spiderfy example for most applications now that I am thinking about it.
Maybe a better example, ESRI when you click a popup has a series of HTML, https://data-ral.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/raleigh-police..., so if you click one of the grey circles it contains multiple points, you can basically go through different views (either all the elements or click through to a more detailed view of the individual point).