GIS 6005 - Communicating GIS - Module 1

Deliverable 3: Briefly explain how your design choices for map elements contributed a consistent style for your map. 

I modified the map legend to list the polygon fields first, and in order of importance. The lines and point features were moved towards the end. I made the map title Orange, with a thick, black outline, to simply make the map look more ‘fun’ and user friendly. Because the rest of the font was small, and an outline would have made it a bit much, I kept it black. I also made a black outline around the legend, as well as the text, to make the layout appear more balanced and professional.

Deliverable 4: Briefly explain how you addressed each of the 5 map design principles. 

1)      Visual Contrast: I tried to make the smaller point and line features more vibrant, over the more faded background. The Travis County polygon itself is easily distinguished from the surrounding counties because of the bold line that surrounds the green color.

2)      Legibility: The legibility challenge was fairly straight forward with this map, as the overall feature amount was not too busy. The highways are the only line feature, and I made them thicker to stand out next to water, which is made up of long, slender polygons.

3)      Figure Ground Organization: I tried to incorporate bold lines wherever possible, to highlight the boundary between features.

4)      Hierarchical Organization: As stated above, the smallest features towards the top of the map. I left the labeling to the legend, to try to keep the map less busy.

5)      Balance: Map was centered on Travis County, but showed the surrounding counties to fill the negative space.

Deliverable 6: Briefly explain how you addressed each of the 5 map design principles.

I began the modification of the current map extent by addressing the five minimum criteria provided in the lab instructions first.

1)      I changed the page size by going into the layout tab, and expanding the page layout. There, I was able to chose from a pre-set page sizes, as well as put in my own parameters. I decided to go with a standard 8.5x11, using the landscape format.

2)      In the layout view, I made the layout window look more vertical, as the harvest stands C and D, and concentrated it along the lower left-hand side of the layout. This way, I will be able to put the legend, and any other relevant information along the right.

3)      In the Layers tab, I activated the map view and turned off the ‘streams’ and ‘general area’ layers in the table of contents.

4)      I changed the scale bar units to feet, and selected a more aesthetic appearance. I changed the north arrow to a simpler design, and shifted it to be in the diagonal corner of the map from the scale.

5)      The Design Principals:

a.      Visual Contrast: I placed a dotted line around the two lease polygons, and made them similar colors to look related to one another. The shading however, is different enough to clearly see the distinction.

b.      Legibility: The map is simple overall, so not much modification was needed. I left the color of the nest areas, and protected buffers as they were.

c.       Figure Ground Organization: There are really only two parts of the map that had to stand out over a white background. The dotted line was added for more contrast.

d.      Hierarchical Organization: Once again, the largest features were placed at the bottom, and the smallest at the top. Not much modification was required.

e.       Balance: I added the legend, and the map notes in their own boxes on the right-hand side, to fill a landscape page with the current map extent.

Deliverable 9: Explain in detail how you used text (type, size, placement, effects, etc.) to achieve the map design objectives of legibility, visual contrast and hierarchy. Do this for each category of text element (general, water, etc.), iterating with significant detail.

I chose a specific font for each category listed in the lab assignment, and worked my way down from the largest of the listed features, to the smallest. I approximated the size, based on how it may appear to the map reader.

I began by labeling San Francisco and Oakland with the large “City” font. Afterwards, I simply made my way down the features in size to label the neighborhoods.

I selected the standard water body font, and labeled all water features. The only label I ended up rotating, was Lake Merced, due to its tiny size.

I made the park names appear dark green, in order to make them legible on the map, but communicate that it may be associated with the outdoors, or nature.

I labeled the golden gate bridge with small, dark font.

The topographic features were labeled with the same font as larger features in the general category, but made lower case to distinguish them.

Deliverable 11: Discuss your selected label options and how they contribute to an effective map.

I imported both; the country, and the state files for Mexico. I made the outline of the country file bold, and placed it underneath the states. I imported the rivers, and made them a strong shade of blue, in order for them to stand out. I selected a slender font, and made it the same color. I tried to give it an outline, but they came out too bold. I used the curving effect to make the labels wrap around the river features.

Deliverable 13: Discuss your selected label options and how they contribute to an effective map. Specifically address the strategies employed to balance numerous labels.

I made the state labels the same shade of grey as the boundaries, and left them in the approximate center of each polygon. I attempted to select a font that is slender, in order to have the least amount of overlap as possible. For the cities, I colored the points orange, and made the labels black with an orange outline to match the points. The cities stand out on the baige background, and are easily distinguished from the water lines.