~---Interactive Interface Maps---~

When it comes to using flash as a tool for cartography, I think of it as a tool for making maps specially with an interactive interface. Because unlike a static map, these maps can provide loads of information that flows into a nice presentation. They can be as simple as a time-line of events, within the time-line itself the user can click or go to wherever they want in time. It could be a simple scroll over a region, country or state in order for a pop-up box to display that entities data; even further it can direct us to another part of the video/presentation that shows us a whole new sets of data.

In all, a interactive map is a map that is very user friendly. It is something that lets the user go where they want to with the map in order to see trends and patterns. A few examples I have pulled from the internet will display what the capabilities are of interactive maps.

Footiemap
Footiemap is a very simple and different kind of interactive map from my perspective. This map first starts you off with the 6 continents and the different Futbol leagues in each of them. The purpose of this map is to help direct viewers to the different soccer teams websites from around the world. So when you click on a country it then takes you to a Googles maps page with the locatoin and names of the soccer teams and when you click on them you then are directed to their homepage. It is a simple map interface and that is all that it is, nothing fancy.

Population of Chinese Regions 2008
This is yet another simple interactive interface map and it is exactly what I think about when thinking of interactive maps, although it is very simple. When scrolling over the different regions of China the data in the box above the arrow changes. It is also a choropleth map that shows the density of the population by region, although there is no legend to define what each color means.

Regional U.S. Migration 2007
This is a very good example presenting the data in different types of interfaces. The first interface is a simple affective way of showing where the top places of destinations are for citizens that move to and from other states. When scrolling over the region, arrows pop up showing where the largest percent of people move to. You can also change the time frame of the data. In the second interface it is very effective for a few reasons:
1. Choropleth map that describes the states net Gain or Loss of population due to migration
2. When scrolling over a state, it connects the other two parts of the map together: The data portion of the map that displays the State's population and other important migration data; and it connects to the bar graph at the bottom of the page that shows the highest net Gain migration versus the net Loss migration. In my opinion this is an amazing interactive map.

MSNBC: Made In the USA
This is a very complete map in terms of user interface. The amount of information you can gather from this map is over the top and it is something I hope to be able to do in the near future. A time-line interface, choropleth map with scroll over features, different data sets, and there is even an audio feature to go a long with some of the historical pop-ups. This is what I think of when it comes to the complete interactive map.

So there you have it, some examples of simple maps to the very integrative user friendly maps that you could study for hours on in.