The almost pop interactive map of this calendar week has to last the New York Times' How Connected Is Your Community to Everywhere Else inwards America?. The NYT interactive map visualizes the connections people convey on Facebook too comes to the determination that nosotros are much to a greater extent than probable to know people who alive close us than those who alive a long way away.
I know! You're shocked, right?
The determination that nosotros are to a greater extent than probable to last connected to people on Facebook who alive closer to us than all the people nosotros don't know who alive on the other side of the dry soil is non precisely basis shattering. The popularity of the NYT map may convey something to exercise amongst the fact that it shows that fifty-fifty inwards these days of the meshwork too virtual online communities distance withal matters inwards our social relationships. However the success of this visualization may likewise last partly due to its simplicity too speed. In other words it is a really effective visualization of the underlying data.
Hover over a county on the NYT map too yous tin move instantly come across a choropleth sentiment showing the likelihood of people inwards other US counties beingness connected on Facebook to whatever of the selected county's residents. The speed of the map is particularly impressive. If yous movement your mouse only about the map yous tin move instantly come across how this unopen zone of friendship on Facebook plays out across the United States.
I believe that the viral popularity of the NYT map is partly downward to its speed. This speed of interaction agency that the map is both a neat interactive information visualization too likewise fun to play with.
So how tin move yous brand a similar map?
Benjamin Td asked himself the same query too laid upwards out to exercise the same map using Mapbox GL. You tin move sentiment Benjamin's resulting Friendship Map here. The Friendship Map shows precisely the same Facebook friendship likelihood information equally the NYT map. It likewise allows yous to hover over a county too instantly sentiment the friendship likelihood inwards every other US county. Benjamin's map similar the NYT map is likewise lightning quick.
If yous desire to know how Benjamin's map plant thence yous tin move hold back at the map's source code. This shows yous that the information for the map is loaded via a GeoJSON file. The map uses Mapbox's Feature State API to dynamically fashion every county based on this information every fourth dimension the user hovers over a county on the map. The map is able to fashion the counties thence speedily because Feature State updates the province of each characteristic at run-time without having to re-parse the underlying geometry too data.
This in all likelihood sounds a lot to a greater extent than complicated than it is. Luckily Mapbox has only published an slowly to follow tutorial Live Electoral Maps: Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 Guide to Feature State. Follow Mapbox's tutorial too yous volition speedily last upwards to speed amongst creating lightning fast maps only similar the NYT's Facebook friendship map.
However - I can't guarantee that your map volition become viral.
