map navigation
Widget gallery Zooming
Draw region
National Geographic
Continuous magnification factors and added panning functionality
Zooming occurs through drawing a box around an area to zoom into, panning occurs as centre of the rectangular box becomes the new map centre. Continue reading...
Dropdown menu
Multimap
On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate this widget?
To minimise screen real estate, Multimap provides a dropdown menu from which users select the zoom level of the map. Continue reading...
Horizontal or vertical steps
MapQuest
Labelled step icons inform users of zoom levels.
When users move the mouse pointer over a step icon, its colour changes and the tooltip displays the zoom level of the new map view when the step icon is clicked. Continue reading...
Lens
Internet Atlas of Switzerland
Swiss precision: magnifying glass reveals an enlarged view.
The movable region around the mouse, the lens, transforms information below it through magnification, fisheye views, information filters, or graphics filters. Continue reading...
Scrollbar
Theban Mapping Project
Almost unreal: scroll to zoom in or out, not to pan around.
Moving the scrollbar from left to right, the map scale smoothly changes, contrary to the established behaviour of the scrollbar widget: to move the view of an area that is too large to be entirely visible in its display region. Continue reading...
Slider
ViaMichelin
Enhanced zoom steps: smoothly changing scale pulling a slider.
Users cannot only quickly jump to a specific level of detail, but they can also pull the slider to see how the map view changes before the map refreshes. Continue reading...
Zoom button
Census Bureau
Magnifying glass most common metaphor for zooming in on web maps.
Being among the first web mapping applications, the TIGER Map Service was able to put its stamp on interface design for online mapping services. Continue reading...
Zoom on mouse click
MapPoint
Clicking map triggers zoom function default mouse behaviour.
Single-clicking anywhere on the map, the map view zooms in by a fixed magnification factor centred on the mouse pointer. Continue reading...