[Qgis-user] North arrow in QGIS

Wed Feb 13 01:07:32 PST 2019

+1

--
Barend Köbben

On 13/02/2019, 10:03, "Qgis-user on behalf of Benjamin Ducke" <qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org<mailto:qgis-user-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on behalf of benducke at fastmail.fm<mailto:benducke at fastmail.fm>> wrote:

Hi,

On 13/02/2019 09:30, Micha Silver wrote:
On 2/13/19 9:41 AM, Frank Sokolic wrote:
Hi,

I think from a user point of view the north arrow is not considered to
be an image so having a separate north-arrow item makes good sense. I
find the current method of adding a north arrow confusing as it
requires the user  to know the following:
(a) North arrows are not added by clicking "Add Arrow"
(b) North arrows are added by clicking "Add Picture"
(c) North arrows are in the "Search Directories" section of the image
properties but this section is collapsed by default so the user has to
know that they must open this section and then scroll to the north arrows
I have no problem with the "Add Picture" approach but it would be better
to have the "Search Directories" displayed by default. It's not at all
obvious (surely not to a new user) that you have to expand that panel in
order to find the north arrow images.

Some empirical remarks, from observing users
that understand cartography, but not technical
UI design decisions:

Out of the ~200 people that I have trained on
QGIS, ~100% did have trouble finding a way
to insert a north arrow into a map layout.
About ~75% of them clicked on "Add Arrow",
and some of those were quite satisfied with
the result; so in the future, expect to see many
maps created with QGIS that have ordinary arrows
adorning them, which more or less point
northwards!

There are various reasons why the current
method does not work in practice:

- people do not think of a north arrow
as an ordinary picture; they think of it
(and rightly so) as a cartographic element
with the same rank as a scale bar; after
all, like a scale bar, it has a dynamic
property (its orientation)

- some think of a "north arrow" as an
"arrow" (which leads to: see above)

- "ordinary images" are inserted into a
layout by using the "Add Picture" function;
that leaves people wondering where to find
north arrow pictures, and they wander of
to Google to find some...

So the complete mental chain here is:

north arrow -> picture -> built-in picture

... and that just leaves people totally
stranded (never mind the fact that the UI
element for browsing shipped images is
collapsed by default, so people will just
scroll past it; and that there is a lag
of sometimes several seconds between clicking
on the tiny triangle and getting to see
actual images; so people will scroll past
it again; and that "Search Directories" is
a UI label that most people don't associate
with anything useful...).

In my view, this is a part of the UI that is
conceptually broken in about half a dozen places,
and there should be a dedicated north arrow
tool "Add North Arrow", exactly where it should
be, i.e. right next to "Add Scalebar".

Best,

Benjamin

I don't find this very intuitive.

Regards, Frank.

On 2019/02/13 09:12, Andreas Neumann wrote:

Hi Hugo,

I was initially also puzzled by the fact there is no "north-arrow"
item for the layout. But if you think about it a bit longer, than you
realize, that it is just as efficient adding an image and synchronize
the rotation to one chosen map, than it is to add a north-arrow,
choose an image and synchronize it with a chosen map.

Do you really think, having a separate item for north-arrow is more
efficient? How many clicks do you save by having a separate item?

Greetings,

Andreas

Am 13.02.19 um 06:11 schrieb Hugo Paul:

Good day

I was wondering if there is a more efficient method for adding a
north arrow to a map layout in QGIS than adding an image?

Something as simple as just clicking somewhere add -> north arrow,
and then being able to choose various styles.

Is something like this available?

Thanks

Hugo

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Micha Silver
Ben Gurion Univ.
Sde Boker, Remote Sensing Lab
cell: +972-523-665918
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Dr. Benjamin Ducke
Deutsches Archäologisches Institut (DAI)
Zentrale Berlin, IT-Referat
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