From Reddit to Radio: The Post-Launch Journey

I launched PickYourPlace three weeks ago, and it's been a wild ride since. I shared a post on Reddit, which drove a lot of traffic to the site and started a discussion about the future of the project. In summary:

• You appreciated the tool's modern UI and responsiveness.
• Suggestions included integrating real estate listings, refining crime data filters, adding demographic details, and elevation profiles.
• A few of you pointed out bugs, such as issues with satellite view transitions.
• Overall, there's encouragement and interest in further development of the app.

I also had the opportunity to talk about PickYourPlace on Connect with Sarah Crosbie on Global News.

During this time, around 1,000 people have visited the site and performed more than 4,500 searches. In the meantime, I've been planning and implementing new features based on the feedback.

What's new

I started by fixing the bugs mentioned above. Previously, when you were on the safety or accessibility tabs with some metrics loaded, changing the base map would reset the view to the default. This issue has now been resolved.

Another piece of feedback was to add more style options for the map. I've added a new style control that allows you to switch between different basemaps, ranging from dark to light, satellite to streets, and outdoors.

Finally, I expanded the options in the travel time control within the accessibility tab. You can now choose to see accessibility changes within 5 to 30 minutes, with 5-minute intervals. This provides more flexibility when evaluating a location's accessibility.

What's next

I received a lot of feedback about filtering capabilities. My next step is to add a new section for filtering data based on different criteria. This will allow you to find the best places to live according to your specific preferences. Stay tuned!