iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

I'm currently available for hire, so don't hesitate to reach out if you have any similar work 🤝

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Beyond design, I developed a preview webpage for the Temaki library (where my icons live) to help developers find the icons they're looking for.

I also made an effort to cultivate a consistent design language by building related icons in series, reusing common elements.

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Prior to my custom designs, many similar features in iD were represented by identical icons. This is confusing. I tried to give each feature a unique, descriptive icon to highlight the differences between them.

OSM is full of jargon that beginners shouldn't be expected to know. Icons can give mappers confidence that they're using the right tags, particularly if the app isn't well translated into their language.

If you've ever edited OSM, you've seen icons like these but probably haven't thought much about them. In fact, these icons are key to helping mappers understand the connection between OSM data and real-world objects.

Back when I worked on iD (the default OpenStreetMap editor) I designed over 270 bespoke map icons to illustrate various feature types. These are free and open source. A guided gallery of my icon work is now available on my portfolio: waysidemapping.org/projects/id-...

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Following the import, OSM mappers immediately started improving the gages' locations, which could be off by as much as few hundreds yards. In effect, OpenStreetMap now has more accurate geometry for USGS monitoring stations than does USGS :)

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To complete the import, I wrote a series of open source scripts to fetch and conflate USGS data into OSM. These can be re-run at any time to keep the data in sync without overwriting hand-mapped data

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USGS's streamgages provide critical public data about the state of our lakes and rivers. They're also used by paddlers to plan safe, enjoyable trips. Mapping them accurately in OpenStreetMap allows any app using OSM to easily incorporate gage information

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Last summer I imported 16,000+ USGS gaging stations into OpenStreetMap. Not content with a one-time import, I built a tool to keep the data up-to-date going forward. I've published a writeup of the project over on my portfolio: waysidemapping.org/projects/usg...

I've mapped dozens of canoe trails in OSM and even helped develop the data schema. Feel free to reach out if you need help getting your trail on the map!

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You can download the map data for this water trail for free from OpenStreetMap. Thank you to mappers including aweech who added some access points and related data. www.openstreetmap.org/relation/130...

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However, the Jordan River suffers from severe water diversions that lower the river level at the expense of ecology and float-ability. Parts of the river can rarely be paddled. Hopefully the water trail will increase awareness of water issues in the Salt Lake Valley.

Photo of rail bridge with reed-choked river underneath by the Jordan River Commission

Diversion canal entrance photo by Jordan River Commission

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Kudos to the Jordan River Commission for spearheading development of this water trail in the last few years. Good access points and clear portages around barriers invite even the most novice paddlers to experience the water. The river is rare in that most of it can even be paddled upstream.

Jordan River water trail portage around surplus canal dam on OpenTrailMap

Photo of kayakers at take-out by Jordan River Commission

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