December 2022 Summaries

Educators at Cornell University and Cal State Fullerton are utilizing the mapping tool Felt in their classrooms to enhance student engagement and motivation. Wenfei Xu, an assistant professor in urban planning at Cornell, incorporated Felt into her course "Mapping and Countermapping" to provide students with practical tools alongside theoretical knowledge in critical geography and cartography. Felt, along with QGIS and Mapbox Studio, offers students a way to work with primary source survey data, essential for understanding the role of mappers as intermediaries between communities and governments. Wenfei introduced Felt to overcome the challenges of creating collaborative maps, allowing students to transition from hand-drawn to digital assets. In assignments, students use tools like Mergin Maps to capture geographical data, which they then integrate into Felt for collaborative projects, such as developing a guide to Ithaca for new City Planning students.

Educators at Cornell University and Cal State Fullerton are incorporating Felt, a mapping tool, into their curricula to enhance student engagement and motivation. At Cornell, Assistant Professor Wenfei Xu integrated Felt into her Mapping and Countermapping course to provide students with practical experience in handling primary source survey data alongside other tools like QGIS and Mapbox Studio. Recognizing the importance of mappers as intermediaries between communities and government, Wenfei aimed to equip students with skills to gather and analyze data for public advocacy. Prior to using Felt, creating collaborative maps was challenging, often requiring manual efforts before digital conversion. In one assignment, students recorded their daily routines using Mergin Maps and then visualized the data in Felt, while another task involved mapping local points of interest in Ithaca to aid new City Planning students. Wenfei's guide to using Felt for educational purposes is available on GitHub.

Felt simplifies the process of uploading geographic data by converting various formats into vector map tiles at multiple zoom levels without requiring user input on data processing. The platform automatically determines the appropriate display scale and employs techniques such as generalization and "polygon dust" to maintain visual clarity and efficiency. These methods involve treating smaller polygons statistically and thinning out point features as users zoom out, ensuring that maps remain informative without becoming visually overwhelming. The software Tippecanoe, used by Felt, plays a crucial role in these processes, optimizing the balance between spatial precision and efficient rendering by adjusting zoom levels based on feature distinguishability rather than raw proximity data. This approach allows users to access and interact with their data quickly and effectively while preserving the integrity and visual representation of geographic features.

Felt's mapping service simplifies the process of uploading geographic data by converting various file formats into vector map tiles across multiple zoom levels, eliminating the need for user input on data processing. This approach addresses the challenge of determining the appropriate display scale for geographic data, which can vary significantly depending on the content's scope. To manage this, Felt employs Tippecanoe software to generalize data efficiently, using techniques like "polygon dust" to represent small features statistically and "dot-dropping" for point features to prevent visual clutter at lower zoom levels. The service strives to balance spatial precision with processing speed by determining the maximum zoom level that maintains feature distinction, avoiding impractical extremes influenced by statistical outliers in data.

Felt has evolved from being a user-friendly map-making tool into a platform that caters to professional teams by introducing powerful new features that offer enhanced control over map creation. Users now have the ability to integrate their own basemaps and utilize map tiles from various sources like Mapbox, Planet, and ArcGIS, allowing them to customize the foundational components and visual elements of their maps to align with their organization's brand and needs. The platform's updates also include advanced styling options, such as custom line weights, colors, and opacities, providing users with the tools to design maps that communicate effectively. Furthermore, Felt supports easy data uploads and offers high-resolution map exports in PNG and PDF formats for offline use, facilitating the inclusion of maps in reports or presentations. These enhancements aim to streamline the map-making process and empower teams to produce high-impact visualizations effortlessly.

Felt has developed a map-making tool that is celebrated for its speed, simplicity, and aesthetic appeal, attracting professional teams interested in its intuitive interface, easy data visualization, and collaborative features. In response to this interest, Felt has introduced a range of powerful new features that offer users unprecedented control over their maps, such as custom basemaps and enhanced styling options, including custom line weights, colors, and opacities. Users can now incorporate a variety of map tiles from sources like Mapbox Studio, Planet, and ArcGIS, enabling seamless integration of existing data without the need for custom applications. Furthermore, Felt provides options to export high-resolution maps as PNG or PDF files for offline use, and users can easily upload and style their own data, making it easier than ever to create high-impact maps. The company invites teams to explore these new features and provide feedback to help tailor the platform to their specific use cases.