Digimap Roam Interfaces: Important changes this summer

The Digimap Roam interfaces will receive some important updates over the summer break. The changes will make Roam’s functionality consistent for all collections and allow new functionality to be more easily added. These changes will also improve usability, making some previously hard to find options much more visible.

The main changes being made are as follows:

  1. All the roams will use the same colour scheme and styling along with consistent buttons and terminology
  2. The Search function will have a new interface
  3. The Print function will have a new interface
  4. Users can change the map style using the new Basemaps button
  5. Users can add extra data using the new Overlays button
  6. Opening and Saving maps and annotations will be done through buttons in the top menubar

Please note that the images below show the current state of the interfaces; they are still in development and so are subject to change.

1. All the Roams will use a common interface design, however there will be some features that are unique to each one, such as the time-line in Ancient Roam, but generally each one will look very similar and work in the same way.

New Roam Interface in Development

2. The new Search interface will appear when you click a button in the top menu rather than in the sidebar to the left of the map.  Although there may not be many differences to begin with, this change will allow us to add in more ways to search for your location in the future.

3. Initially the new Print interface will be very similar to the current one in Digimap Roam, though it will now appear in a new interface when you click a button in the top menu. The main advantage with initial changes will be that print sizes up to A0 will come to all collections (except Historic) as well as user defined print scales. We are planning more extensive changes to the Print interface in the near future.

New Roam Print Interface in Development

4. Users can currently alter the style of the map by changing the Map Theme in the legend. This functionality is quite hard to find so in the new Roams we are adding a Basemaps button to do this. Where available, users can select from a list of alternative styles, such as MasterMap in the old LandLine style. In addition to the existing extra Vectormap Local and MasterMap styles there will be new styles for Vectormap District, Meridian and Strategi datasets coming soon.

New Roam Interface showing Basemaps Button

5. We are adding an Overlays button so that users can add additional data layers on to the map.  Initially this will be the hill shading already provided in Roam, however we hope to add Postcode Boundaries and Contour lines soon. This functionality used to be available in Carto several years ago but was lost when we moved to a new GIS platform, it is now making a welcome return.

6. Finally, we are introducing Open and Save buttons as ways of saving your maps and annotations and then opening them again. These buttons replace the My Maps section on the left side of the map and the Save, Open and Export buttons in the Annotations Tool bar. The aim is to make it much easier to see what you are saving and opening.  It will also make it more obvious that you can open annotations you have created in one Roam interface in any of the others you have access to.

New Roam Interface showing Open and Save Buttons

If you have any questions about the new interface or anything else then please let us know:

  • Email: edina@ed.ac.uk
  • Tel: 0131 650 3302

 

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