Module 3: Cartographic Design

 

    This week's lab had us exploring the world of cartographic design while following the lesson plan regarding Gestalt's cartographic principles. Our task was to take the module 3 dataset and with simple instructions, to design a map of the schools in Ward 7, D.C. following Gestalt's principles. 

    We were tasked to use proper color schemes, color contrast, unique values, figure-ground distinction, visual hierarchy, balance, and other principles to create a map displaying the schools in Ward 7. An inset map was needed to help the viewer understand the location of Ward 7 within Washington, D.C. Essential map elements, emphasized or deemphasized based on importance, were needed to help the viewer's comprehension of this important information. The inset map didn't need much information, being that its only purpose was to help find the study area, so many layers were left out leaving only major roads, waterways, parks, and of course D.C. and the study area. The main map was centered and elements such as Neighborhood names, streets, and parks were deemphasized so that the main information, Ward 7 and the school locations, would stand out more, helping to demonstrate the figure-ground principle. 

    Some of the emphasized map elements include the title with larger text, and the legend with its larger text and its sharp white color. These elements were among the most important, as they conveyed the study area and how to understand the data being displayed. Following the visual hierarchy, these elements along with the schoolhouse symbology should be the first thing a viewer notices on the map. 

    This map was created in a layout within ArcPro utilizing two map tabs, one for the main map and the other for the inset map. The data was provided by our professor, and they had acquired it from the District of Columbia Open Data source. After the data was added, figuring out which layers were essential, and which would be considered clutter was easy by looking at the map. "Clipping" using the clip tool and symbolizing the ward 7 schools really helped to figure out what was really important in the map and what was not. Emphasizing major roads, the study area, and the schools helped to make the map feel more specific. If the rest of the D.C. area, roadways, parks, and labels were not contrasted or made more transparent, the map would have been way too "loud" to fully grasp the intended information. Creating annotations of road labels and neighborhood names also helped to "control the chaos" in this map. Sometimes using the best placement wheel just isn't good enough, and you have to manually place a label. This was my experience when labeling the neighborhood clusters, manual placement helped me to get them just right. Finally, after the map felt balanced, figure-ground distinction achieved, and visual weight just right by deemphasizing features, the map was exported and displayed as seen above. 

    The only bad part of the exercise was the latency issues faced by not only the remote workspace, but with my personal computer as well. I did well to pause the maps when not in use and get rid of redundant layers in the map tabs. For some reason however, ArcPro, on both machines, just did not want to cooperate. If I had to guess (and I checked a couple) many of the polygons were very accurate and used a lot of vertices in their boundaries, creating a processing challenge wit multiple copies of the data in one project. 

    I do believe this exercise was very helpful and helped me to realize some of my own flaws in cartographic design. The website the professor provided, ColorBrewer, will be very helpful in all my future endeavors, I'm certain of it.