Overall, I had fun time mapping the places I frequent at Carleton. I created this map where the locations of importance were mapped via a csv file accessible here. I have had a fair amount fair amount of experience working in Esri’s systems, but I have not worked extensively in ArcGIS Online. Thus, it was nice to look through some of the software’s capabilities. I symbolized my map by two attributes. Campus locations are colored by purpose (i.e. academic, athletics) and the size of the spike corresponds with the amount I visit said location over the course of the week. In this way, I was able to display multiple trends (one through relative size and the other through color). I also added a pop up to each building which tells you the address, its name, latitude/longitude coordinates, and the days a week the site is visited.
There are tons of different ways that one could use ArcGIS Online. It is very user friendly, and the fact that it works via the web makes it accessible to a much wider array of people than those who can use a desktop. I particularly like that you can use it to make simple, yet visually appealing/professional maps really quickly. While it may not be as powerful as Pro, it is effective for a lot of daily mapping tasks that are focused on marking locations of interest. In terms of DH work, it is a helpful tool to host and mark up georeferenced maps or to map places of historical importance. Importantly, given its web compatibility, it can be seamlessly integrated into interactive DH projects on the web.
Kudos, the spike visualization is a unique way to show the data. I also agree that ArcGIS was very useful and a simple but effective tool for getting stuff done.
Now, I will say, one piece of feedback I have is that zoomed out, the spikes get all clumped together, so you may want to limit the range:
Generally, though, it was a good map.