Technical Forum

Unfortunately we can't directly control the labels on the base maps. We use Mapbox, which is powered by Open Street Map (OSM). Typically someone at your Council would be maintaining this to make sure it is correct, and providing OSM with the correct polygons. Looking into this result, it appears that OSM has Moffat Beach running the whole distance from Dicky Beach right down to the point. Once OSM is changed, then Mapbox will be refreshed within a couple of weeks, if not sooner.

Sorry! I wish we could say yes, but unfortunately we can't show you custom boundary outlines on the individual maps. In your custom locations you can see the data capture boundary if you click on the "about this report" bar at the top of each report. This will expand the section and show you the precise data capture area for the report.

The Greenvale report is one of our public locations - the way to 'split it up' would be to request additional custom boundaries for your more specific smaller areas. However the results for Greenvale as a whole is still correct. The difference that you see when you flick between the other locations is due to the scaling of the results. The colour scales on the results are 'bracketed' based on the percentile results for the data capture area. This means that 'very high' is the top 15 percent of all results within that data capture boundary. So if the boundary is bigger or smaller, the range shown is bigger or smaller.

To illustrate this point a little further, another example would be if we looked at the whole of Australia in one view, probably only Sydney and Melbourne would appear 'very high' with the rest of Australia appearing 'normal' or even 'low'. If you want to discuss this further, then just let us know. If you'd like to request an additional custom location you can go ahead and do so through your Add ons cart in your Upgrade portal. The new location could be processed within 1 business day if you are still working to a tight deadline.

Depending on what data sets you are most keen to compare across different locations, there are different ways to do this.The Insights Reports are always one location at a time, and while you can toggle between locations (in the 'Reports' menu) to see how they compare, you cannot ' zoom out' to see more than 1 location in a single report. This is because each report is 'scaled' to itself - meaning 'high' activity in one location may be different to 'high' in another. For behavioural data (activity hotspots of visitation) you can easily compare locations to one another in the Discover tool. This interface allows you to click across different suburbs to see how the results change. For amenities mapping (to attractions) you can use the Explorer tool to compare custom locations to one another. Just utilise the 'compare mode' toggle, and this will allow you to select more than 1 location for comparisons and ranking.

Here is some guidance on how to choose the best custom location size and shape. But if you're still unsure on whether your locations will provide good results, just send me through the locations and I can pass them on to our team to confirm their viability for use as custom boundaries.

Best size: Depending on your geographic area, custom locations smaller than 3km2 (2km2 in CBD locations) may yield limited data due to a smaller sample size, potentially affecting the robustness of your findings. Some of our data results have an error of up to 50m, so shapes that are too 'narrow' can be problematic. ‍In instances where you are seeking to analyse the lifestyle around a specific location - such as a shopping centre or park - we recommend including a 1-block radius around this location to ensure you pick up all relevant activity.  

Best shape: The strength of our data is to provide you with the ‘context’ around your focus area. For this reason the best shape for a data boundary is usually a circle around your area of focus. We recommend a 1km radius for typical neighbourhoods, smaller for CBD locations, and larger for regional locations. The exception for this, is where there is a point of interest within your context that you wish to exclude from analysis so that it does not ‘contaminate’ your data. For example, if you are trying to understand visitation to your town centre, and there is a hospital on the town’s edge, you may wish to exclude the hospital from the analysis so that your visitation results reflect town centre visitors, and not the hospital visitors.

Our Help Centre also includes articles on how to request a custom location or choose the best comparison locations.