Bing Maps: Shaded Map

A thematically shaded map allows us to display records using particular geographical boundaries. In the UK, we might use Postal Area, Postal District or Postal Sector. This allows us to look at the distribution of our customers or prospects around the country.

For example, to see the UK distribution of Australian holidaymakers:

  • Create a selection to identify people who have been to Australia

  • Drag the Map tool from the Visualisation section of the Toolbox ribbon bar onto your selection

  • At the top of the window, select the Layer 1 tab

Options

Map Layer Title Enter the description to be shown on the layer tab and legend display
Resolve Table & Filter Set the table level and any record filter here to determine the records shown e.g. People or Household figures
Map Type Choose between the Shaded and Plot Map options
Default Display Style When viewing the Map results select to show the Descriptions or Codes for items
Geographic Variable Drag and drop here the geographical variable to determine how the data will be shown on the Map
Segment Variable Allows you to segment the data by the selection variable used, displayed as pie, column charts etc.
Statistics Panel This area displays all the statistics that have been added for possible display on the map
Add Statistics… The statistics window allows you to define which statistics will be made available in the statistics panel
Help… Click this link to open the FastStats Help files
Display MapPoint Wizard for Next Build Displays the wizard each time the map is built so you can change the graph type and other options

  • Drag and drop the Postal Area variable onto the Geographic Variable drop box

Added in Q2 23

As an alternative to dragging on a geographic variable to use, you can right-click on the Geographic Variable drop-box to easily access, select and add any available selector variable with a GeoFormat property set.

  • Build to create the Shaded Map display:

Shaded Map - Quantiles

Thematics

The thematic options for applying shading to a FastStats Map are the same as those you have when creating a Cube or Tree.

By default, shading is applied based on Quantiles - here 10 bands.

To edit or change this:

  • Click to select Thematic in the Layers panel

    Layers Panel Thematic

In the Edit layer thematic... dialog:

  • Click on the Type drop-down to access and select the required Thematic

  • Amend Ranges and Threshold settings when relevant

If you wish to amend the thematic colours, simply use the drop-down menus at the bottom of the dialog:

 

If none of the standard thematic types matches the data you require, you can choose User Defined and set your own ranges. These ranges can be entered in any order that makes sense for your data, and they do not have to be contiguous.

 

Added in Q3 23

You can user define and set a custom sequence of colours for the bands displayed in a cube, tree or map. This is useful for presenting insight when the graduation of colour is not significant, but differentiating information in the display is beneficial.

See Custom Colours in Cube, Tree and Map Thematics for a worked example.

The introduction of custom colours on a map also brings the ability to set up corresponding custom labels for each of the bands in your thematic shading. These labels are visible in the map legend and help to provide further meaning to user defined colours.

See Bing Maps: Shaded Map - Custom Thematic Labels

 

Related topics: