So, to begin with I would first like to share a map that I recently worked on using this wonderful tool called TileMill which i am totally obsessed with and have been spending hours working on it. Tilemill is an open source based mapping software developed by Development Seed which creates awesome data visualisations and great mapping tools for supporting development and humanitarian projects around the world. Simply put, in their own words, "TileMill is an application for making beautiful maps. Whether you're a journalist, web designer, researcher,or seasoned cartographer, TileMill is the design studio you need to create compelling, interactive maps."
The map below is a live and interactive map showing the Energy Consumption at the block and lot levels for New York City. It represents the total annual energy consumption at the block level (visible at lower zoom levels) and at the lot level (visible at higher zoom levels) for New York City, and is expressed in kilowatt hours (kWh) per square meter of land area. The data comes from a mathematical model based on statistics from Modi Research Group, not private information from utilities, to estimate the annual energy consumption values of buildings throughout the five boroughs. We were also able to break down what type of energy is being used, for which purpose and in what quantity( to view this information you need to hover over or click on a block or lot).
While there are lots of open source based web mapping applications out there, TileMill is impressive in that it combines all great features into a single package. To make a map, one needs data, defines a style and then publishes it. TileMill, comes with useful datasets from Natural Earth like country outlines, roads and rivers but it also supports users to upload their own data in various formats like, ESRI Shapefiles, KML, GeoJSON, GeoTiff, as well as databases like, PostGis and SQLite. It also recently added support for csv import. As far as data styling is concerned, TileMill is based on Carto, a simple CSS-like language that is very easy to write in for anyone with no prior programming experience. The development interface includes a live view of generated tiles based on data layers and a great little editor with smart features like autocomplete and simple style debugging. TileMill also allows for complex design which i tried to use, like feature labels and interaction based on zoom levels as well as support for layer Tooltips all of which has been made very easy to use, especially considering all the complex Mapnik stuff going on behind the scenes. As far as publishing, TileMill provides exports in various formats like PNG or PDF image. But, best of all it supports an MBTiles file, a bundle of all the pregenerated tiles for a web map. The tiles can then be web hosted on their mapbox hosting service called TileStream which allows for great "embed" features that makes it easy to include your map in any blog or webpage(exactly how i was able to display my map live here in this blog).
I have until now been mostly working on static maps and now with applications like TileMill, I just can't believe how easy it has become to make an interactive web map. TileMill is currently available for linux and Mac OS (with a desktop application)with work in progress for supporting Windows. I strongly urge you to take a dive at making a cool and beautiful map using TileMill and I promise you will be suprised to see how easy it is!!!
