Introduction to Geomaps

Geomap data visualizations are an excellent way for users to produce visual representations of geographic data on easy to read maps in Storyboards. By combining your location data with key metrics, you can create an interactive geomap to share with other users. 

One of the most popular geomaps is to look at Headcount by City to see where all employees are located across the US and Europe, but it could be the world.  The granularity of your source data will determine the level of detail presented in the geomap, such as metro areas, zip codes, city, state or country levels. 

To look at the different levels on the map, use the + and - buttons on the map widget or use the scroll wheel on your mouse. Clicking on a data dot will open the drillthrough window with a description, calculation, selected value, nodes, and query results. Users have the option to Export the drillthrough data, or click on any links, if links have been added.

When you click the three dots at the top right of the tile, you have options to go back into Explore to look at the underlying data or export that data to a CSV file, subject to user permission.

See geomap in action

Watch this short 4-minute video.

** Please note ** you will need to submit a ticket and work with our Support team to configure this feature including the levels of granularity of the data on your geomap, and which levels you want different users to access. One Model has a limited set of geo coordinates available to users and you will need to provide the geo coordinates for additional locations. 

To support a visualization like this, we need to link our people to not just a location name, but a geographical location. To do this, we need to set up the Geospatial Dimension.

What is a Geospatial Dimension?

A geospatial dimension is created just like any other dimension in One Model with a processing script and connection to a data source. Due to its geographical nature, you will need to source geolocation data including the latitude and longitude coordinates for your locations. 

Some HRIS’ already have geolocation data included in the core information for employees or office locations etc. If you do not have this information, One Model has a limited data set of locations available for customers, but you may have to source and generate the geolocation data to populate the geospatial dimension. 

Ideally the data would be part of the original source, so that as new locations are added they automatically flow through to One Model.

Learn more about creating a Geospatial Dimension. 

Creating a geomap

Watch the video.

Once you have your geospatial dimension set up, you easily create a geomap through the Explore feature. 

1. Go to the Explore tab
2. Go to Visualization type  and select List for Geomap 
3. Select metrics and dimensions
   • Select your Metric
   • Select your geospatial location dimension and then select your level.
     1. The level selector changes the level of granularity of the points on the geomap chart, for example;
        • Level 1 - Continent 
        • Level 2 - Country
        • Level 3 - State or Territory 
        • Level 4 - City

             **Note that your actual dimension structure may vary from this example**

• You can also filter this by other dimensions by making additional selections in your query.
• Select your desired Time Period. The query must have a time period selected to run. 

4. Click Run Query
   • Your initial query results will appear as a list in Explore. You will not see the Geomap visualization until you open it in a Storyboard. 
5. Click the Pin icon, and then select
   • Pin to New Storyboard,
   • Pin to Existing Storyboard, or 
   • Save to Insight Library. 
6. Click Save
   • Save and stay on the page, or
   • Save and go to the Storyboard. 

      7. Open your selected Storyboard and you will see a new geomap tile.

Customize your geomaps in design mode.

For users with permission to edit Storyboards, you can use the design panel to customize your geomap with options to change the color, relative bubble size, and tooltip visibility.

Users can also control the initial view point for any given geomap by using the lock icon located near the top left of the geomap chart when in design mode. Unlock the map and then pan and zoom to your desired map view and then click the lock icon again.

After you save the Storyboard this is the initial view users will see for the geomap. They will still be able to pan and zoom, this just sets the default position, but this is particularly handy if you want to position multiple maps on a page with different perspectives.

Watch the video about Creating and formatting geomaps.