Places that are hard to describe in words
City feedback forms ask where the broken streetlight is. Event organisers ask where a guest would like to be picked up. Delivery services ask which side of a large building the courier should come to. In each case «near the big roundabout» costs a phone call, and a pin does not.
Pin prompts
- Move the pin to where the problem is.
- Where should the courier meet you? Drag the marker to the exact entrance.
Map centre, API key and the mobile view
The map is Yandex Maps with a draggable marker. Out of the box it opens on Moscow at zoom level 10, so the first thing to do is enter the latitude, longitude and zoom of your own city or venue; otherwise respondents start by scrolling across a continent. You can also add your own Yandex Maps API key.
On a phone the respondent pans and drags the pin with a finger, and the address found for that point appears under the map. Note that the block saves the starting centre as soon as the map loads, so an untouched map still counts as an answer. Tell people clearly to move the pin.
Results list the most common places (up to eight) and the point count; the CSV holds the address, or latitude and longitude to five decimals.
What you can set
- map centre latitude
- map centre longitude
- map zoom
- your own Yandex Maps key
When a pin is the wrong tool
If you only need a city or a region, a pin is overkill and slower to answer than a list. Use the region picker or a dropdown instead.
If you need proof that someone was physically on site, a pin is not proof: anyone can drag it anywhere. For that job, capture the device coordinates with the GPS block.
And if the respondent does not know the area well, give landmarks in the description. People orient themselves by a station, a shopping centre or a river much faster than by street names on a small screen.