Idea Lab

How to Create a Minimalist Map Design With OpenStreetMap

by AJ Ashton
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

Mapping can be as much about choosing what data not to include as to include, so you can best focus your audience on the story you are telling. Oftentimes with data visualization projects, the story isn't about the streets or businesses or parks, but rather about the data you're trying to layer on the map. To help people visualize data like this, I've started to design a new minimal base map for OpenStreetMap. What's great about OpenStreetMap is that the data is all open. This means I can take the data and design a totally custom experience. Once finished, the...

• January 20, 2012
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TileMill Opens Up a World of Mapping Possibilities With OpenStreetMap

by AJ Ashton
2010 Knight News Challenge Winner

One of our favorite collaborative open data projects is OpenStreetMap. We've talked before about the project's goals, how its free and open nature is advantageous for non-profit and commercial applications alike, and how its open and near-real-time editing process is a major advantage in rapidly changing situations, from city construction projects to natural disasters. The map's coverage continues to grow and become increasingly accurate and complete as more people discover it and contribute. The project's main feature is not the interactive "slippy map," but the thousands of other possibilities the underlying data provides. Since OpenStreetMap is open and freely available,...

• June 23, 2011
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