Flanders
We are so excited to unveil our newest release. Excited isn't even the word. We are giddy. Those of you who have known us for a long time already know this, but we name each versions of Platial after the alphabet streets of Portland, Oregon, in order. It is with great pride that we introduce to you the new Platial, aka Flanders.
We Look so Fancy!
Our new sharp looks come from the creative mind of Matthew Stroh, who is going to continue to bring on the shiny as the newest member of the Platial team. We also owe the success of this redesign to our fresh new Lead Engineer Chris Henderson, who has helped us get our act together since coming on board a couple months ago. Everyone on the team has worked really hard on this deploy and deserves to bask in a little ray of glory. Here's an overview of what the new Platial has in store for you.
More Publishing Options
Now you can auto-embed either a flash map or a javascript map onto your favorite blogging sites and we've added more auto-install options because what the world needs now is less cutting and pasting.
More Advanced Features in Your Map Set Up
Block people from commenting on the Places on your map--for those who don't want to know what other people think!
Review places before they appear on your map--a must for those who put their open maps out on Facebook and Myspace!
Map Navigation to the Max
Show Don't Tell
The categories in our new map legends make it easy to see what kinds of places are on the map at a glance. We are slowly working on categorizing all of the Places on Platial.
Save Your Spot!
Knowledge is Power
Map details put all the information and stats about the map right up front.
New Hovers Give You More
Where Was I?
Where Do I want to go Now?
The recommendations tab will always have good ideas about where to look next.
We're Not Done Yet!
The bulk upload tool is being rewritten and will be back in your add place tray very soon. The slider is also missing from the new design for now. We'll soon make it possible for you to change the categories of the places you added in the past and which our robot might have mis-categorized. Keep your eyes peeled for frequent updates and be sure to write to us so we can make your Platial dreams come true. All our best ideas come from you!
Shout Outs
We had a lot of extra help pulling this together and we want to thank everyone who was a part of this big deploy. Our helpful, inspiring, domineering creative directress who shall go mysteriously nameless was our main inspiration. Platial beta tester club members who helped test this include Stormy7g, Ayogist, Rekha6, Scootdown, and Raju0704. Michelle Rowley, David Knape, and J Chris Anderson pitched in on the technical side. Pauric O'Callaghan finally gets to see some of the flows he helped us work out in action. Bob Kim didn't work on this deploy directly, but way, way back long, long ago he helped working out some of the ideas that we've finally been able to implement here. We also need to give a big thanks to the very understanding Platial families (our spouses and children) who put up with us working some long hours. Thanks for keeping me fed, honey!
I am really interested in getting that bulk tool back. I used it first last year and was very happy. Of course it appears that I got remotivated a week too late. One thing that would be cool with the bulk upload would be to have the ability to choose a pin (or dot size). My map will have a bunch of places of varying size, it would be nice to have say small, medium, and large dots. Even the ability to have different colors would be nice.
I've got my data ready, as soon as the tool is up, I've got a map to post.
Posted by: Dave | May 16, 2008 at 08:56 AM
I just noticed the "new" look, and I can't say I like the new flags you're using as place markers - mine seem so close together, they overlap a lot - if there were opportunity to put a photo in that big balloon, I might like them better, but... Is there a way we can have the option of the old pinpoint-type markers?
Also, I had trouble finding out how to contact you or ask for help - where are the FAQs?
Will check back later to inspect the other changes, thanks.
Posted by: Leanne Mackenzie | May 12, 2008 at 03:58 PM
I just noticed the "new" look, and I can't say I like the new flags you're using as place markers - mine seem so close together, they overlap a lot - if there were opportunity to put a photo in that big balloon, I might like them better, but... Is there a way we can have the option of the old pinpoint-type markers?
Also, I had trouble finding out how to contact you or ask for help - where are the FAQs?
Will check back later to inspect the other changes, thanks.
Posted by: Leanne Mackenzie | May 12, 2008 at 03:57 PM