Community Wishlist Survey 2022/Miscellaneous/Kartographer icon improvements
Kartographer icon improvements
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Capitol_Square_map.jpg/220px-Capitol_Square_map.jpg)
- Problem: There is no one clear set of icons dedicated to Wikimedia maps. Three things need to happen – (1) an established set of icons particular to Wikimedia mapping needs, (2) the rewriting needed in order to add this set of icons, and (3) better support to more easily add and modify icons in the future.
- Background: Kartographer-based Mapframe maps work wonders to easily show maps in Wikipedia infoboxes and beyond. However the mapping tool really suffers from a lack of identifying icons. Especially for maps that show numerous features, editors are having to be creative to come up with icons that just barely associate with their topics. This is because MediaWiki uses an obsolete version of Maki icons, but even that still wouldn't fix all the problems relevant to Wikimedia spaces. The Maki icon set was designed for maps, though not for Wikimedia. Therefore it has numerous icons useless to Wikimedia spaces, and lacks icons essential to mapping here. There are at least 11 unclear icons, and at least 47 missing icons key to mapping here.
- Other problems include, for accessibility, making more options for legibility. Right now, icons only display white. Icons should be able to be at least colored black, if not more colors, for increased contrast when the marker color is set to a lighter color. Markers should also have options for shapes other than the default teardrop shape, to allow for differentiation when using grayscale maps and for people with low color recognition (see task T131618).
- Who would benefit: Innumerous Wikimedia spaces, primarily Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, but including numerous unique projects like Wiki Loves Monuments and Wiki Loves Earth, which need good mapping.
- Proposed solution: Developing an additional entirely new set of icons, including many of the below missing or unclear examples:
- Part one: coding
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- Code to allow for easy icon additions and improvements. This needs to happen now, and likely as Kartographer becomes more widespread on WMF projects, future changes will be necessary.
- Part two: icon/marker formatting
-
- Icons, currently only available in white, should be available at least in black as well, for increased contrast when marker-color is set to a light color
- Markers should have more shape options behind the tear-drop shape.
- Part three: fixing unclear icons
- bank – explore clearer icons - a money bag, a generic paper bill, or a bank building (fixed in Maki, not here)
- beer – should resemble a beer mug more closely, see Commons:Category:Plain black SVG beer icons
- building – should be renamed 'house', with a better symbol for building (fixed in Maki, not here)
- church – should resemble common church icons
- cinema – cinema projector icon would be much clearer than a clapperboard (used in film studios) (fixed in Maki, not here)
- fire station – currently resembles an active fire, not a station
- library – would look better if it incorporated a building along with a book/books, see these
- mosque – should resemble common mosque icons
- prison – unclear, looks like a fence (fixed in Maki, not here)
- school – should resemble common school icons
- synagogue – should resemble common synagogue icons
- Part four: adding missing icons
- amusement park (fixed in Maki, not here)
- ancient site or ruin
- apartment building (fixed in Maki, not here)
- aquarium (fixed in Maki, not here)
- aviary
- beach (fixed in Maki, not here)
- bell
- botanical garden
- bridge (fixed in Maki, not here)
- casino (fixed in Maki, not here)
- castle – perhaps European and Asian (fixed in Maki, not here)
- cave or cavern
- clock
- conservation area
- courthouse
- distillery
- elevator
- escalator (fixed in Maki, not here)
- forest
- fort
- fountain
- government building
- habitat – significant or protected
- hill
- hotel – more general 'lodging' exists, see clearer example
- hut
- indigenous settlement
- jewelry store (fixed in Maki, not here)
- lake/pond
- landmark (fixed in Maki, not here)
- landfill
- marketplace or food hall
- military base
- military conflict or battle – multi-pointed star
- moor
- mountain (fixed in Maki, not here)
- nature center or wildlife center
- nuclear power plant – more general 'industrial' exists
- observatory
- power plant – more general 'industrial' exists
- pyramid
- racetrack (automobile)
- racetrack (horse)
- religious-buddhist – together with Hinduism, represents a quarter of the world's population (fixed in Maki, not here)
- religious-hindu – together with Buddhism, represents a quarter of the world's population
- research station
- retirement home/assisted living facility
- river/stream – to pinpoint when shape or line entries aren't yet created or workable
- ship or museum ship – 'ferry' exists
- shopping mall
- stable
- stadium/arena – limited individual sports are available, though those are not applicable for multipurpose arenas (fixed in Maki, not here)
- tomb or mausoleum
- tower icon(s) – bell, clock, guard, military, radio, water, etc.
- train station – more general 'rail' exists, see clearer example
- tunnel
- skyscraper – more general 'commercial' exists, see clearer example (fixed in Maki, not here)
- solar farm
- stairs
- state or national capitol
- transit station, for multimodal stations or less-common transit modes
- university campus (boundaries preferred, not always available)
- valley
- vineyard
- volcano (fixed in Maki, not here)
- waterfall (fixed in Maki, not here)
- windmill (fixed in Maki, not here)
- winery
- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. – allows for clearer maps of relocations (see second map here)
- More comments: The above set of icons proposed are only ones I have found immediately relevant; others in the current Maki set or elsewhere may prove to be as well. Careful care needs to be taken to ensure a non-Western view, as some instances of map icon bias have already been pointed out.
- How this should best be solved needs investigation, whether it be adopting later Maki items, WMF or community creating new icons, utilizing existing free Commons files, or a combination of those options. Nevertheless, the technical function of adding and modifying icons needs to take place.
- Phabricator tickets: task T145475, task T141304, task T131618, task T141715
- Proposer: Ɱ (talk) 02:58, 12 January 2022 (UTC) (resubmit from last year - it did not make the stringent vote cut)
Discussion
This would be a relatively easy service to build (and one I actually have on my very long term todo list), now that Kartotherian is no longer so strictly coupled with everything. The hardest parts are versioning and numbered poi's. My current design looks like:
/marker/default-icons /marker/maki/v3/original-icons /marker/maki/v7/other-icons /wmf/v1/othericons
Where default icons then maps a name to a more specifc icon of a styleset. Then from the geojson, you can refer to: tenniscourt for the default or "maki/v4/tenniscourt" for instance for another set. And you could refer to pog-red or wmf/v1/pog-red. It also needs a rewrite/update of the makizushi compositing library to put icons and marker images together. It would be relatively easy to do, but does take some time. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:30, 12 January 2022 (UTC)
- Thanks, @TheDJ:. I hope this can move to a more short-term to-do list, because it's definitely been a barrier for many users. I've encountered a good amount of opposition to mapframe because of poor design - this would be a huge plus for many users to switch over. Ɱ (talk) 04:07, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
- Can you link these four icon sets so I can see what is suggested but not in them? And what could be the process to add new icons? I can design new icons, but would need a way to add them in. Ɱ (talk) 04:23, 13 January 2022 (UTC)
- For mapframes, there are OpenStreetMap, which contains different information about the location. I agree with the icon that's not very good. Thingofme (talk) 02:53, 16 January 2022 (UTC)
Don't forget that Wikivoyage exists with comments like 'these can't be used for Wikimedia' ;). --Izno (talk) 22:34, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
- Is this referencing my image caption? I use and edit Wikivoyage too, and don't see how those highlighted icons could be useful for that project. Ɱ (talk) 03:39, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
- Separately, this should probably be in Multimedia and Commons category. --Izno (talk) 22:38, 18 January 2022 (UTC)
- Not sure if any multi-project nominations are divided up that way, have you found any or any rule for it? Ɱ (talk) 03:39, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
- Multimedia does not mean "images and video" and that's the part I think this falls under. Izno (talk) 04:41, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
- What about having POIs that show number above 99? This is one of most annoying thing on those icons. --Andyrom75 (talk) 20:10, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
- Multimedia does not mean "images and video" and that's the part I think this falls under. Izno (talk) 04:41, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
- Not sure if any multi-project nominations are divided up that way, have you found any or any rule for it? Ɱ (talk) 03:39, 19 January 2022 (UTC)
- Would it be possible to use already existing OpenStreetMap icons under a CC license? (Especially considering most maps displayed in Wikipedia are already imported from and attributed to OSM. It might reduce the workload of designing all new icons. -> OSM Wiki-Map Icons Ottawajin (talk) 05:06, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Voting
Support Good idea refined from last year!
will improve every language Wikipedia, and Commons, and Wikidata in a visible way
reduces the cultural bias of the limited icon set
makes the Wikimedia platform more attractive to the off-wiki mapping community
choosing icons is a fun beginner activity in outreach
Wikipedia's maps are awesome and should look awesome. Bluerasberry (talk) 19:40, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Any maps improvement is welcome Strainu (talk) 20:59, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
Support — Draceane talkcontrib. 21:08, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Izno (talk) 23:33, 28 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Betseg (talk) 02:09, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Higa4 (talk) 07:17, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Aca (talk) 13:11, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support — SHEIKH (Talk) 13:59, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Mbrickn (talk) 16:08, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Lectrician1 (talk) 20:09, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support What; is it unanimous? Jim.henderson (talk) 20:47, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Goombiis (talk) 22:22, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support OwenBlacker (Talk) 22:42, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Nw520 (talk) 23:34, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support 𝗩𝗶𝗸𝗶𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗿 ℣ 23:48, 29 January 2022 (UTC)
Support TheInternetGnome (talk) 08:05, 30 January 2022 (UTC)
Support JPxG (talk) 00:45, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Thingofme (talk) 01:45, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
Support — HELLKNOWZ ∣ TALK ∣ enWiki 11:21, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
Support JAn Dudík (talk) 20:50, 31 January 2022 (UTC)
Support Daniel Case (talk) 22:48, 1 February 2022 (UTC)
Support Alvanius (talk) 23:49, 1 February 2022 (UTC)
Support Pharos (talk) 01:51, 2 February 2022 (UTC)
Support Sturm (talk) 12:42, 2 February 2022 (UTC)
Support Rotavdrag (talk) 11:39, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
Support WikiAviator (talk) 15:56, 3 February 2022 (UTC)
Support - Darwin Ahoy! 02:14, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
Support —— Eric Liu(Talk) 05:35, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
Support 公車迷阿暄 (talk) 08:25, 5 February 2022 (UTC)
Support--Vulp❯❯❯here! 04:23, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
Support Ayumu Ozaki (talk) 06:44, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
Support --Dipsacus fullonum (talk) 12:29, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
Support C933103 (talk) 15:12, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
Support --Ciao • Bestoernesto • ✉ 17:29, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
Support — DaxServer (t · c) 20:53, 6 February 2022 (UTC)
Support kudos for the detailed & well-formatted proposal! paul2520 (talk) 15:11, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
Support doable and definitely needs some work done —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:19, 7 February 2022 (UTC)
Support Ján Kepler (talk) 18:48, 9 February 2022 (UTC)
Support --evrifaessa (talk) 16:03, 11 February 2022 (UTC)