I have been working on this idea of how to plot about 50 routes on a google map at a time. In previous applications I have identified about 10 different routes at a time via the polyline color. I stopped at that point because the routes started to draw over top of eachother and you couldn’t really tell the difference via colors very well.
I’m sure others have had to tackle this issue before. I have been thinking about this for quite sometime, but haven’t had any good ideas. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
***Update per comments below
The more I can plot the better the main draw back is being able to discern between the different plotted routes. This is part of the requirements for a project that I will be working on at some point in the future for a customer. Basically, the want to be able to cycle through routes at a glance see intersections on these routes, things of that nature, but it doesn’t do them a whole lot of good if you can discern between 10 and there is 40 more on the map.
**Also, not a mobile app or for the visually impaired.
First off, you need to know your user. What route would they be most concerned with. This is important because this allows you to group these routes. Grouping is vital when you handle a lot of data because it allows the user to differentiate what is needed and what is not needed.
Some ways of Grouping could include toll routes, first 10 fastest routes, scenic routes, highway roads, route through major cities, routes by fast food chains. I hope you are getting the picture by now.
Yes, you could use 50 different colors or lines. But when it comes to that a lot of data,it is just not practical or useful at all to you or the user. This will also make the application ugly and frustrating when a user can’t understand the map because of data overload.
There are multiple interesting ways you can handle this. Everything from different colors, alphas (opacity) to different types of lines (dashed, wavy, thick, thin). There are also different effects you could do to combine the routes.
Now to the important part. You can make your map all pretty and categorized well. But what will make ur application stand out from others is how you allow the user to choose a route from multiple ones. If you ever used Google earth/ directions and can change the route on the fly by clicking the road is pretty sharp and intuitive if you ask me or if you want to scroll through the routes by selecting then by sliding could be done well also.
Also, how do you change the categorized material? Bring up a menu? display a dialog? etc. There is a lot of things you can do here.
I hope this helps