EMS page usability issues

[LeeDr]

When I go to https://maps.elastic.co/ it's a bit confusing to know what to download and how to do it.

1. Along the left side there are both a section of Tile Layers with the top item pre-selected Road map, and another section of Vector Layers with the top item pre-selected World Countries.

The Road map and World Countries are links, but only to render them in the map. I can't right-click and Save as to download the GeoJSON files.

If I click the Download GeoJSON button it opens the JSON in my browser. So I have to right-click (on Windows in Chrome) and save link as....

Using that button gets the item selected under Vector Layers. How would I get the Tile Layers? Or is it a combination thing where I make a selection in each list and when I download is some combination?

2. The location of the Search... bar next to the Download GeoJSON button causes confusion that you have to search and selection something to download. The search is really just to search for things within the Vector Layers (and/or Tile Layers?) to show on the map.

I'm guessing that Tile Layers aren't GeoJSON? And don't need to be downloaded? If that's wrong, then maybe there should be another button like Download Tiles and showing the thing that's selected.

[nickpeihl]

When I go to https://maps.elastic.co/ it's a bit confusing to know what to download and how to do it.

1. Along the left side there are both a section of Tile Layers with the top item pre-selected Road map, and another section of Vector Layers with the top item pre-selected World Countries.

The Road map and World Countries are links, but only to render them in the map. I can't right-click and Save as to download the GeoJSON files.

I understand the confusion. The links are used to load the data in the map rather than for right-click and save. Do you have a suggested alternative to using hyperlinks?

If I click the Download GeoJSON button it opens the JSON in my browser. So I have to right-click (on Windows in Chrome) and save link as....

This is a valid concern. Perhaps we can find a way to trigger the save as dialog box rather than open in the browser. I will dig into this.

Using that button gets the item selected under Vector Layers. How would I get the Tile Layers? Or is it a combination thing where I make a selection in each list and when I download is some combination?

Tile layers are not downloadable. These are reference basemaps that are only exposed as tile services.

1. The location of the Search... bar next to the Download GeoJSON button causes confusion that you have to search and selection something to download. The search is really just to search for things within the Vector Layers (and/or Tile Layers?) to show on the map.

The Search bar is only used to filter the features that appear in the map and table. It has no bearing on the Download GeoJSON button which downloads the entire file.

I'm guessing that Tile Layers aren't GeoJSON? And don't need to be downloaded? If that's wrong, then maybe there should be another button like Download Tiles and showing the thing that's selected.

Correct. We don't currently offer an option to download tiles. They are not GeoJSON and only available as a service.

[elizabetdev]

Thanks for reporting those issues @LeeDr,

I'm the designer helping the maps team and I agree that we can definitely improve the design of the page. I'll work with @nickpeihl to find better design patterns.