Lab 1 - Map Design

In our first lab assignment for GIS-6005 Communicating GIS, we got a refresher on fundamentals regarding the use of symbology, cartographic tools, and the implementation of general map design principles. For the first part of our assignment, we were provided with a very basic .mxd which provided data of Travis County, Texas. Our task was to prepare the data for cartography, for the purpose of highlighting other non-music-festival activities in the City of Austin (golf and recreation) for potential tourists; and more importantly, to polish it while documenting how we utilized the 5 map design principles as follows:

Visual Contrast – I addressed visual contrast in my map design by using a complimentary color palette which increases visibility to display and distinguish all geographic features, while especially highlighting the most prominent features (golf courses and recreational centers). For example, I spent a lot of time choosing the right shades of orange, blue, green, red, and black. I don’t believe anything blends in, nor is difficult to decipher, nor makes anyone squint.

Legibility – I believe I achieved proper legibility design by carefully choosing line widths and point sizes for the symbology items. For example, the recreation center point size is 7 with a black outline. When I toyed with a smaller size, it didn’t stand out as much; and when I chose a larger size, it began to mesh in with the other points because of proximity and map extent. Additionally, I used common, easy-to-read fonts, font colors, and font sizes for the text provided.

Figure-Ground Organization – This was the most difficult one for me to implement considering our lab instructions stated to remove the surrounding counties layer. As a result, this is what prompted me in using an orange background for the county boundary polygon to make it stand out from a white background. I think this in itself creates a figure-ground organization. If we were to use a geographic background, I would have attempted to use a drop-shadow, feathered, or whitewash effect using Adobe Illustrator as suggested by Aileen Buckley in our reading Make Maps People Want to Look At to “distinguish the figure from the ground” (p.49).

Hierarchical Organization – My hierarchical organization is displayed in various ways. Aileen Buckley nicely states that hierarchy can be achieved by visually separating your map items into layers of information (Make Maps People Want to Look At, p. 50). I believed I achieved this by meticulously and visually ordering the most important aspects of my map elements by size. For example, the map title is the largest text, followed by the legend, following by the source data, cartographer, and publish date text information. There is only one data frame, and of course it is placed in the middle, zoomed in as much as possible to emphasize importance and draw attention. The scale bars and north arrows are small indicating their significance.

Balance – Travis County’s geographical shape creates many opportunities of awkward empty spaces. I attempted to create harmony and balance between the county’s shape and my map elements by diminishing these white spaces. One way I did this was by not creating border/boxes around the title, legend, and/or other map elements as suggested by Cynthia Brewer in Designing Better Maps on page 10. Additionally, I decreased the size of the page to 8 x 8.5, and inserted the map title snuggly at the top next to the map area.

Extra Note: I purposely inserted two scale bars (miles and kilometers) to allude to the idea that the majority of tourists may not necessarily be from the United States, and thus might be accustomed to the metric system.