[openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website] Combine Export and Share panels (Issue #6575)

Mon Dec 1 19:23:46 UTC 2025

1ec5 created an issue (openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website#6575)

I propose to eliminate the separate Export page in favor of an enhanced Share panel. This will reduce user confusion between the two parts of the site while leaving more room for other important functionality.

## Background

Originally, “Permalink” and “Shortlink” were two links at the bottom-right corner of the map on the homepage. The 2012 redesign moved these links into a new Share panel with additional options, while keeping the Export page more or less the same (if I remember correctly).

In a sense, the Export page and the Share panel now do the same thing. It’s essentially the difference between downloading the raw data in the viewport versus downloading a rendered image of the same data (or a link to it). There are a few differences: a different license applies to the data versus the rendered image. Also, precise controls for setting the bounding box are probably more relevant to the use cases for working with raw data. These controls take up more horizontal space than the right sidebar has available. The Export page additionally lists options for downloading more than just the viewport’s worth of data.

## Problem

Exporting the data is something that (more technically savvy) end users would do, but philosophically the site is geared more towards mappers than end users: https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/pull/6543#issuecomment-3582745462. Donate (#6517) would be more relevant to both mappers and end users, but we might not have room for it because of Export. In fairness, the availability of raw OSM data is one of the main things that differentiates us from other crowdsourced sites. But “Export” doesn’t really communicate that difference in my experience, not as well as the “Open Data” section of the About page could.

The Export page is accessible from the main site navigation, which means the user can access it from any page. If the user arrives there from a page that doesn’t have a map, it defaults to exporting whatever they last viewed on the map, probably something unrelated to their current task. This is a symptom of the fact that exporting is really tool for interacting with the map, just like sharing is.

I’ve spoken with both mappers and developers who wind up on Export when they want Share or vice versa, and they don’t know where to go for the other one.[^study] #651 suggests adding a message pointing to the other side of the page, but we shouldn’t have the same kind of functionality split between two sides of the site anyways. A symptom of this split-screen effect is that both panels let you get into the same custom bbox editing mode on the map simultaneously, and only one of the panels lets you exit the mode:

## Proposed solution

I suggest merging the Export page into the Share panel, moving additional download links to the About page, and turn the “custom dimensions” bbox-drawing mode into something that can be as precise as the existing Export page’s controls. More specifically, I think a redesign could involve the following steps:

* Remove Export from the site navigation.
* /export opens the Share panel automatically.
* Add a “Data” section to the bottom of the Share panel that exports the raw data or shows a warning if the viewport is too big.
* Replace the “Set custom dimensions” checkbox with a button, and add the same button to the “Data” section.
* Add fine print under the “Data” section saying that the ODbL applies. (If images exported from Cycle Map or Transport Map have license terms, we should add similar fine print under the “Image” section.)
* Move the existing Export panel’s north/south/east/west fields to a “Custom Dimensions” doorhanger (similar to the closable welcome banner) that only appears when setting custom dimensions. Closing the doorhanger exits custom dimensions mode.
* Add links to Overpass, planet dumps, Geofabrik, etc. to the “Open Data” section of the About page.
* Add a link to the bottom of the Share panel that goes to the “Open Data” section of the About page.

Have I missed any other aspects of the Export page that would need to be preserved in any redesign?

[^study]: This also came up several years ago when I tried to introduce someone in my area to mapping in OSM. With their professional background in usability research, they mistakenly thought we were looking for usability feedback. This was the very first thing they brought up. Unfortunately, I believe their very nice PDF writeup is lost to the winds of a free Slack plan…

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