Right now, when a user enlarges a maframe map, the "Map Details' panel loads in the open state and is one of the most prominent things the user sees (see below).
In the first place, the panel does not give "map details" at all: what it does is promote the use of other, external maps, like Google Maps. So, at a minimum, it's misnamed. And the button and label are not conistent: one says "More details" and one says "Map details."
But also, I have to ask: is this panel really the most important functionality on the page--so important we need to show it every time? It literally has nothing to do with the map the user is looking at; it simply provides a way to look at different maps of the same thing Couldn't that be on the other side of a button click instead. If our maps are so useless we really feel we ALWAYS need to offer users alternatives, then so be it. Let's just rename the button and panel and move on.
But if we feel that the always loading the map with this panel open overdoes things a bit (I do), the let's open maps with this closed (and rename the button and panel).
To Do's
- make it so that when the user clicks to enlarge a map, the External Maps (or whatever) panel opens in a default closed state.
- Right now, the button and panel have different labels. Let's make the button and label consistent and more descriptive.
- I propose: External maps or Other map services
Additional design details
Initial (closed) | Panel opened |
---|---|
- The "external maps" button, with the "newWindow" icon from the icon repo is used as the entry point to open the external panel.
- When the panel is opened, the actions that were aligned to the right of the map, are pushed to remain over the map (e.g., notice that the close icon remains over the map).
- The panel title is "External use", and two sections are available: "Coordinates" and "Map services".
- The selector of type of map, lists the default option as "Standard maps", to make it more clear that other kinds of maps are available as options for the user to chose.
- Map services are listed using the service name and the external icon. Clicking will open the corresponding map in a new tab/window.
- For a given type of map, if there are more than 7 options only the first 4 will be shown, and a "more" option will be available to show the rest. If there are 7 or less options, all of them will be listed.
- The chevron pointing own icon that closes the panel is replaced by the "arrowNext" icon which is an arrow pointing to the right.
As a reference the current panel is shown below: