Bristolstreets.co.uk is a web site that provides map based information about transport and other things in and around the city of Bristol. It was launched in November of 2007 and is financed by the developer without grants or other backing.
Social
In simple terms the aim of the site is to improve quality of life by helping people make better transport choices and to provide other information and interactions that enhance the city and the lives of the people in it.
The site has had public transport information at its core since the beginning. Over time map layers have been added, removed or changed and various types of information have come and gone including property, sustainable information and local events.
Running the site has inevitably lead to contact with the local council and resulted in the creation of "survey layers" which enable visitors to the site to create their own markers to help give feedback on council consultations.
Survey layers such as the cycling layer and the city centre area plan have been hugely successful getting very high levels of public engagement. Visitors can add new markers and attach comments to them and these remain visible. Unlike online forms, this gives them confidence that their efforts have not disappeared down a black hole and it also helps to stimulate the discussion when other visitors see the earlier input.
User Interface
Bristolstreets takes online maps and tries to buck a few common trends.
The first is the tendency to make maps too small. This means that when they are zoomed in close enough to read road names or identify landmarks, there is not enough surrounding detail to identify the general location or context and vice versa.
By making the map fill the entire web page, bristolstreets, almost uniquely, allows both detail and context to be viewed at the same time.
Second, rather than searching by text, which requires prior knowledge, bristolstreets is predicated on browsing and discovery. The main advantage of displaying information on a map is that people can find things by their location rather than their names or other characteristics. For things such as transport location is the most important criteria and clicking markers then allows more details to be shown.
By dividing the data into "layers" or groupings of associated data (like buses or bicycles) the data becomes more manageable. If there is still too much data the site offers filter mechanisms that allow the user to choose general criteria to limit the number of markers on the map.
The site also uses non-marker overlays such as custom tile sets which give the map an unusual and exciting appearance. This alone goes a long way to grabbing the attention of the visitor and getting them to use the site.
Evolution
The internet is constantly changing. Since the site was first created much has changed both in the web and on the site specifically. Because the site was, from the outset, heading into uncharted territory, the future plans and direction of the site have always been open to change and the pursuit of the more interesting possibilities that arise from time to time. It has also been a journey of technical discovery as the understanding of how data should be navigated on top of a map and how this information should be requested and delivered from server to browser.
The site is in its fourth major incarnation, which is visually a small evolutionary step from the previous incarnation, but internally is a completely new code base. This new code base incorporates the lessons learned from the previous three years experience or developing and running the site. This not only provides better efficiency during operation, but also ensures greater stability as the system is more modular and compartmentalised then ever before. This ensures that changes to one layer or part of the system are less likely to have inadvertent effects on the other parts.
The data presented has also changed over time. This is partly a matter of experimentation to see what would work well with the system and what could be acquired and maintained. Currently the number of layers on the map is reduced due to the recent upgrade of the core code, as each layer requires conversion. Also some data was hard to keep up to date and some was not accessed by visitors frequently enough to make it worthwhile.
Get Involved
Hopefully you will find the site useful and can engage with the discussions in the survey layers. You may even be inspired by what you see and have ideas for new uses for the site. We would be keen to hear about these. We would also appreciate people letting other people know about this site. We do not have a marketing budget so the site depends on referrals and links from other sites to get visitors. Please use the contact form to give us feedback or start discussions.
Social
In simple terms the aim of the site is to improve quality of life by helping people make better transport choices and to provide other information and interactions that enhance the city and the lives of the people in it.
The site has had public transport information at its core since the beginning. Over time map layers have been added, removed or changed and various types of information have come and gone including property, sustainable information and local events.
Running the site has inevitably lead to contact with the local council and resulted in the creation of "survey layers" which enable visitors to the site to create their own markers to help give feedback on council consultations.
Survey layers such as the cycling layer and the city centre area plan have been hugely successful getting very high levels of public engagement. Visitors can add new markers and attach comments to them and these remain visible. Unlike online forms, this gives them confidence that their efforts have not disappeared down a black hole and it also helps to stimulate the discussion when other visitors see the earlier input.
User Interface
Bristolstreets takes online maps and tries to buck a few common trends.
The first is the tendency to make maps too small. This means that when they are zoomed in close enough to read road names or identify landmarks, there is not enough surrounding detail to identify the general location or context and vice versa.
By making the map fill the entire web page, bristolstreets, almost uniquely, allows both detail and context to be viewed at the same time.
Second, rather than searching by text, which requires prior knowledge, bristolstreets is predicated on browsing and discovery. The main advantage of displaying information on a map is that people can find things by their location rather than their names or other characteristics. For things such as transport location is the most important criteria and clicking markers then allows more details to be shown.
By dividing the data into "layers" or groupings of associated data (like buses or bicycles) the data becomes more manageable. If there is still too much data the site offers filter mechanisms that allow the user to choose general criteria to limit the number of markers on the map.
The site also uses non-marker overlays such as custom tile sets which give the map an unusual and exciting appearance. This alone goes a long way to grabbing the attention of the visitor and getting them to use the site.
Evolution
The internet is constantly changing. Since the site was first created much has changed both in the web and on the site specifically. Because the site was, from the outset, heading into uncharted territory, the future plans and direction of the site have always been open to change and the pursuit of the more interesting possibilities that arise from time to time. It has also been a journey of technical discovery as the understanding of how data should be navigated on top of a map and how this information should be requested and delivered from server to browser.
The site is in its fourth major incarnation, which is visually a small evolutionary step from the previous incarnation, but internally is a completely new code base. This new code base incorporates the lessons learned from the previous three years experience or developing and running the site. This not only provides better efficiency during operation, but also ensures greater stability as the system is more modular and compartmentalised then ever before. This ensures that changes to one layer or part of the system are less likely to have inadvertent effects on the other parts.
The data presented has also changed over time. This is partly a matter of experimentation to see what would work well with the system and what could be acquired and maintained. Currently the number of layers on the map is reduced due to the recent upgrade of the core code, as each layer requires conversion. Also some data was hard to keep up to date and some was not accessed by visitors frequently enough to make it worthwhile.
Get Involved
Hopefully you will find the site useful and can engage with the discussions in the survey layers. You may even be inspired by what you see and have ideas for new uses for the site. We would be keen to hear about these. We would also appreciate people letting other people know about this site. We do not have a marketing budget so the site depends on referrals and links from other sites to get visitors. Please use the contact form to give us feedback or start discussions.
