Project Update and My First Map Design
I talked a week or so ago about how I tracked down the ‘right’ data for my senior capstone project, so here’s an update on how things are going so far. As I slowly but surely make progress towards the finish line and graduation, I have finally made it to the visualization stage with the data. One of the first things I started getting a handle on with GIS were the different tools used to visualize data and basic map design principles (remember my post, Intro to Map Design Tools?) What I had not anticipated is exactly how much time it can take to get the layout looking acceptable and the color scheme not to be entirely atrocious and offending to the viewers eye. Here’s what I’ve learned so far...
Keep it minimal
I have a hard time with this one because my natural inclination is to be attracted to bright and brilliant colors. However, with map design too much color = your message not getting across. For a bit I had a seven different environmental justice variables represented on the map in different colors, but after asking my sister if she could understand what my map was trying to say (she said, no and laughed at my ADHD color scheme) I made the choice to lump values within the field into tiered categories. The end result was much more understandable and still gives a range of different environmental justice communities. However, instead of the focus being on the characteristic qualifying the community the reader’s attention is focused on the severity of the community’s disadvantage which is more applicable to the analysis that I will be carrying out.
There is actually a lot to talk about in regards to keeping things minimal, I also learned how important it is to not have distracting unnecessary features drawing away from the focus of the map. When I first started pulling together data layers, I thought that I would need various transportation routes and labels in order to orient the viewer into understand where my map is located. After playing with the layers for awhile I realized that the scale of my map was not conducive to a high level of detail and all I needed were a few labels of major neighborhoods in order for the viewer to understand my analysis. This goes back to the importance of keeping your research question in mind at all steps of the process, not just when you are identifying the data needed for your map but also when you are planning out how people will see the map.
Know where you are going
I didn’t get to play with my layout too much because I knew that these JPEGs were just going to be dropped into the middle of a thirty page research paper. However, I did find that organizing the map and the legend and the scale bar, and the captions in ArcGIS was absolutely painful and took up the most of my time. I think the time consuming nature of this task was largely due to the softwares shortcomings when it comes to design. I imagine if you are looking to create a more intricate layout with lots of different images and text this is the stage where you might pull the map out of ArcGIS and into Adobe. I would love to hear from you all on your experience designing within ArcGIS or taking maps out of the software and into a more flexible design tool and also any recommendations you have on improving the legibility of how I present my data.
