How to indicate that the pin on a map can be hidden?

Question

In our mapping application the user is able to look up an adress which is then indicated by a pin on the map. In cases where this pin would cover some underlying icons (can be clickable) I would like to provide the opportunity for the user to hide ("x") the pin so that the underlying icons become visible.

Is there a common pattern for this problem? Any advice or idea?

Answer 1

There is no such pattern. Special difficulty is in touchscreen, because in other case you can show hide icon on hover.

I suppose clicking on pin shows some popover with information about pin — so to solve the problem add there "Hide pin" button/link. Also don't forget to add on map control panel button with text similar to "Restore hidden pins (XX)" (XX is amount of hidden pins). If there are no hidden pins — hide or disable this button (depends on behaviour of other controls of your project).

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

UPD: Another approach to the problem, without icon hiding.

^{download bmml source}

Answer 2

... without any click-action.

If the pin does not currently have any click-action then you could include a close icon on the pin itself and give it a click-action (click to close):

However, this does go against convention a bit, as users often expect to click the pin to get more information. Although with a big red cross maybe this message is made clear?

Alternatively you could simply have a Hide Pins button/icon either on the corner of the map (overlaying the map), or just off it?

Answer 3

Potential solutions:

• Use a simple marker (like a pulsating circle) to indicate the search location, this will allow your users to still see other features in close proximity
• Zoom the map to a larger scale (street level) which in most cases is desired anyway and has the advantage of spreading features out
• Depending on the reason and type of the search opening an info window with action buttons could be a desired next step so that users start another workflow right after, e.g. we've added 'Analyze property' or 'Find ... around me' in the past. In that way there is less emphasis on the actual visual analysis of the map and you wouldn't run into your issue
• Yet another approach is to show an info window with a large scale map inside - but that's just a crazy idea ;)

Cheers