Using Map Charts

Map charts let you compare values and display categories across geographical regions. You can create map charts only if your dataset contains location data that corresponds to latitudinal and longitudinal values. Location data can include the actual values for latitude and longitude. It can also include geographic components such as country, state or region, county or district, city, and ZIP code or postal code.

These types of map charts are available:

Point map
Shows the difference between data values for each location by size.

Each point on the map corresponds to a geographic location in your data, such as a country, state or province, or city. The size of the points represents the magnitude of the field in the Size field well, in relation to other values in the same field. The color of the points represents the values in the Color field well.

Point map
Filled map
Shows the difference between data values for each location by varying shades of color.

Each location in your data is filled in with color based on the number of times that it appears in the dataset. If you add a measure to the Color field well, each location updates to show the sum of the measure.

Filled map

To create a map chart:
  1. Click Dashboards tab, the Dashboards tab.
  2. Click Dashboard Designer, in the bottom-left corner.
  3. On the Analyses dialog, click New analysis or click Options button, the Options button, next to an existing analysis and select Edit.
  4. On the analysis page, click , the Add visual button, on the toolbar.
    Analysis page - Create a visual
  5. Click the icon for the type of map chart that you want to create.
    • Points on map icon Points on map
    • Filled map icon Filled map
  6. Add data to the visual by dragging fields from the Data panel to the appropriate field wells in the Visuals panel.
    • To create a point map, drag a dimension to the Geospatial field well, a measure to the Size field well, and, optionally, a dimension to the Color field well.
    • To create a filled map, drag a dimension to the Location field well and, optionally, a measure to the Color field well.
    To add drill-down layers, drag at least one more field to the Geospatial or Color field wells in a point map or to the Location field well in a filled map.
  7. Customize the appearance of the visual in the Properties panel on the right.
    1. Under Display Settings, format the title and subtitle.
      For more information, see Formatting Titles and Subtitles in Visuals.
    2. For point maps, select a style option under Points.
      • Basic points - Uses the default display setting for map points.
      • Cluster points - Clusters map points together when there are too many markers close together in one area. You can use marker clustering to improve the readability of collocated points on a map.
      • Heatmap - Displays concentrations of data points using a colored overlay that highlights the intensity or concentration of the markers in the visual. You can use geospatial heatmaps to reveal patterns of marker concentration. Set the color that you want to use for the high density and low density values under Heatmap gradient.
    3. Under Base map, select the type of the base map that appears beneath the data.
      For example, you can use a gray canvas, a street view, or a satellite view.
    4. Under Legend, format the legend.
      For more information, see Formatting Legends in Visuals.
When you view a map chart in an analysis or published dashboard, you can interact with it to explore your data. You can pan in a map chart by clicking anywhere on the map and dragging the cursor. You can zoom in or out in a map chart using the Zoom in and Zoom out icons on the bottom-right corner of the map. Or you can double-click the map to zoom in and double-click while holding the Shift key to zoom out. To go back to displaying all the data, click the Zoom to data icon.
Parent topic: Creating Visuals