Exercise 8: Bivariate Map

Bivariate Map of Africa, a photo by mainharn on Flickr.

This project was meant to introduce manual bivariate mapping using Microsoft Excel and Adobe Illustrator CS5. The information for this map was a bit difficult to acquire, and took quite a bit of research time. In the end, I was still unable to find all the data for each country. This did not seem to effect my map greatly. I decided comparing the death rate of each country to the number of people living with AIDS would prove give some insight as to whether or not AIDS was the main reason for people dying. For the most part, there was a correlation. However, the pattern was not as distinct as I had originally hoped for.

Things I would have done differently to make this map better:
I should have started with a bigger circle for the largest symbol. This would have given me larger circles for the symbols with the smallest values. They ended up being very tiny. I also would have looked longer and tried to find different areas of research for the missing information.

Exercise 7a: Proportional Symbol Map

Proportional Symbol Map, a photo by mainharn on Flickr.

The purpose of this assignment was to introduce manual proportional symbol mapping with Microsoft Excel and Adobe Illustrator CS5. I originally was going to map population by counties in Georgia, until I found Georgia has about 250+ counties. Then the idea came to me to look up how many counties each state actually has. This is what the above map is demonstrating.

Things I could have done differently to improve this map:
I could have used a better scale. The ratio scale is not always the best scale to use when demonstrating distance for anything. I also would have done an “outer glow” effect to the states instead of the “drop shadow” because the shadowing made my states darker in some areas, making it look funny.

Exercise 6: Choropleth Maps of Louisiana’s Acadian/Cajun Population

Louisiana project, a photo by mainharn on Flickr.

This is a choropleth mapping project. We had to break information down into a quintile classification and into equal interval classification. The top two maps are the absolute numbers of people reporting to have Acadian/Cajun ancestry. The bottom two maps are the percentages of the people reporting to have Acadian/Cajun ancestry.

Things I would change to improve this map:
I would adjust the sizes of the states so they are not so close to the edge on the left side of the frame. To me, this makes it look slightly off balance. I also would have put just one scale for the entire map instead of all four because they each have the same scale anyway, and cutting it down to one might have helped me adjust the sizes.

Out of Proportion Symbols

I found this proportional symbol map using the Bing search engine. This map has many negative things going for it. I will critique this map using the 5 Essentials of Map Design.

1.) Figure-Ground: The grey color of the states is distinguishable from the white background, and the green stands out nicely from the grey states. This is one element that is done properly on this map.

2.) Legibility: This is poorly done. A lot of the names of the capitals are running into the lines of the circles in awkward ways, making it hard to distinguish some letters. “Santa Fe” is spaced out for some unknown reason, and the overall placement of the names are not at all effective. It is hard to tell whether the circle is determining where the capital is or if the name is.

3.) Clarity: This could have been better had the creator given some distinguishing trait to the actual state capitals. It is difficult to tell where those places actually are on the map. Also, with the legend it is not understood as to what the numbers are actually counting. Millions? Thousands?

4.) Balance: The balance is not terrible. However, it would have been nicer to enlarge the font size of the names of the capitals, and move the “Indianapolis” title away from the actual title of the map.

5.) Visual Hierarchy: This could be fixed if the creator of the map chose a smaller reference size for the largest symbol. The largeness of the circles is very distracting. Once the sizes are reduced, they should also be made more transparent to effectively give room for all the circles to be on their own capitals.

Overall Rating: 2 out of 5.

Bad_Circle1, a photo by mainharn on Flickr.