The Haynes Layout

The Hypercities Haynes site is divided into three main sections: The panel outlined in purple contains an expandable list of GIS data layers. The panel outlined in blue houses all the collections that you can add to your map. The panel in red is an interactive map which displays all collection objects and GIS data layers that you select.

GIS Data Layers Panel

GIS data layers contain various demographic data down to the census tract level. There are four types of visualizations:

Choropleths

Choropleth maps are color maps based on the frequency of a variable such as population. For example, areas with higher populations are denoted with darker shades of color.

Dot Densities

Dot density maps show the distribution of a variable. Using these types of maps allow you to see clustering of populations easier.

Pie Charts

Pie chart maps give a ratio of multiple variables for the census tract they are placed in.

Bar Charts

Bar chart maps give an indication of how a variable has changed over the time for the census tract they are placed in.

The GIS data layers are organized into three collections: Ethington-Meyers Census Data, Drayse Mayoral Election Results, and Modarres Filipino Population.

Using the GIS Data Layers Collection

Clicking the arrow on the left expands the collection. To collapse the collection, just click on the same arrow.

A layer can be turned on with the checkbox located to the left of it. Clicking that checkbox again turns off the layer.

You’ll notice there is an icon to the right of the layer title. The icon in the red box denotes a choropleth map. The icon in the green box denotes a Chart map. Chart maps can be either dot density, pie chart, or bar chart maps. Up to two GIS layers can be on concurrently: one choropleth and one chart map. Turning on more maps will automatically turn off the older maps.

Legends

When you toggle on a layer, the corresponding legend appears below the layer title.

Transparency

You can set the transparency of the layers with the slider bar to invisible, 75%, 50%, 25%, and fully visible. Layers start at 50% transparency by default.

Collapsing the GIS Panel

This orange arrow allows you to minimize the GIS data layer panel. Clicking the arrow again expands the panel again.

Collections Panel

The content of collections can range from videos, photos, text documents, and maps. These objects are geotagged, which means that they have coordinates associated with them. When the objects are toggled on, the map will zoom to their location and place the object there.

Using the Collections Panel

The collections panel is divided into two main sections: the summary window, and the items window.

Summary Window

The summary window is located at the top of every collection. This window displays information such as title, time, and the creator of the collection. The top right of the summary window has a button that allows you to close the entire collection window.

The yellow bar beneath the summary window is the navigation bar for the collection.

Notice the two buttons on the left side of this bar. The left button is on by default, it expands all items in the item window so that notes and additional information is displayed.

The right button collapses all items so only the title of the item is displayed:

Pressing the “Prev” and “Next” buttons allow you to brwose through the items in the collection. The map will pan and zoom to the location of the item and turn on whatever objects associated with the item.

Item Window

The “Prev” and “Next” buttons here work in the same fashion as the ones in the navigation bar. The new button here is the “Open Collection” button. It is located on the right side of an item, and allows you to expand an item and see the contents inside.

Upon opening an item, the summary window changes to display the information of the item you expanded. Additionally, a new button appears in the summary window. The “Back to Previous Collection” button allows you to go back to the parent collection.

When looking at an item which can be displayed on the map, you’ll notice two new buttons. The “center” button provides you with another method to browse collections. Upon clicking the button, the map will automatically center on the item’s location, and turn on all objects associated with it.

The “toggle” button allows you to toggle the objects associated with an item on or off.

Map Panel

The Map Panel is where the GIS layers and collection objects are displayed when you turn them on.

You can pan the view on the map using the direction arrows. The zoom slider beneath the direction arrows is used to control the zoom level of the map.

The time bar at the top of the map allows you to filter out objects based on the time they are tagged with. You can change the bounds of the timebar by dragging the yellow arrows.

The reload button, located to the right of the direction arrows remove all objects and maps from your map, and resets the timebar to 1700 till present day.

In the upper right corner of the map is a dropdown menu that allows you to toggle the map between five options: satellite (default), map, hybrid, terrain, and Earth.

The satellite option is a satellite image that does not show city names or major highways. The map option is a normal map which shows city names and major highways. The hybrid option is a combination between the map and satellite options. The terrain option is similar to the hybrid option but street and highways are displayed more clearly.

The Earth option allows you to view the map in a 3D mode. You can use the new navigation wheel to change the angle of your view down to the ground level.