28.07.2021 – New Wide_Easy Layout for VeloMap

Yesterdays post was about the general improvements to the layout of the OpenMTBMaps and VeloMaps. Todays post is about the new easy layout for the VeloMap (based on wide layout – as most users now have GPS devices where the wide looks better than the classic layout due to higher DPI). The OpenMTBMap had since many years an easy layout – with less detail (though based on classic not wide before the updates). For the VeloMaps – which do not need to show strong differentiation for offroad trails – this was not so much needed. Especially as there existed already the “race” layout – for racing bicycle which is heavily reduced and only shows important information for people using racing bicycles.

However quite a few people never took time or are not interested to know if there is a cycletrack/cycleway running alongside a road. Nor do they want the best contrast or are they interested in knowing if there is a footway or a pedestrian street. Or if some street is considered a service street or a residential street. The easy layout does not show those differences and keeps it simple. The colours of the steets is similar to […]

28.07.2021 OpenMTBMap – New Map Layouts finally online – Big Improvement for easy and hiking Layout

After many weeks of trial and error – and trying out a lot of changes both on desktop and in real life hiking and mtbiking – finally the rework of the map layout is finished. I have made sure to make the map layouts much easier to comprehend, more harmonic to look at – and more congruent in consistency of the colors.

So e.g. before while mtb trails were green, mtb routes were brown. At 500m zoom scale (Basecamp, normal detail) the map had become too cluttered in Europe’s densely populated areas. For some polygons there were some problems that they overlapped other areas (e.g. parks) and in general some areas just stuck out way too much even though their importance to hiking or mtbiking was not given (sport fields). I had differentiated building colors too much – and had different shades of grey for government buildings, museums and so on vs normal buildings. While this gave a lot of information – it is not actually needed and make the map a bit harder to read.

I have now reworked all layouts to focus on the essential things – while still providing the awesome level of detail only given […]