Cartographic Design - Computer Cartography

 Hello fellow Cartographers!

In this week's lab, I explored cartographic design and learned how conceptualize and create maps according to the need of a user. During the lab we were tasked to learn how to establish and implement visual hierarchy that emphasizes important map features, and applying contrast that implies their importance. We also learned how to employ figure-ground to make important map features appear closer to the map reader, achieve map balance by utilizing empty map space for placement of map elements. When displaying our data for the lab, we needed to be sure we knew how to symbolize layers by category and when the data was displayed on a figure we needed to know how to utilize an inset map. Below is my map that resulted from learning outcomes we came to understand:

I designed my map in a way that follows some aspects of Gestalt's principles. In case you don't know what Gestalt's principle are, it is the principles/laws of human perception that describe how humans group similar elements, recognize patterns, and simplify complex images. In my case, one aspect of the principles I followed is the figure-ground relationship which you can observe in my map above. I established a figure-ground relationship by making the ward 7 target area a brighter color than the area outside of ward 7. By doing this, I made it seem that ward 7 was closer to the viewer and that emphasizes that this area is important. Another reason I designed my map in this way was by implementing visual hierarchy, which when symbols and map elements are ranked according to their importance. I implemented visual hierarchy on the map by putting an emphasis on the schools. I made sure they were the top layer, and made them into different colors and sizes depending on school type to emphasize the visual importance of each one. The next bit of visual hierarchy I implemented was for the title and legend. For the title I made sure it would be the first thing to catch your eyes by making it a size 24 font in bold. I made the legend title bold as well, and outlined it in a bold black line with a bright white background to draw attention to it. The last bit of visual hierarchy I implemented involved the roadways. I made sure the more important roadways were displayed above the less important roadways and ensured that the line width was displayed in accordance with the importance of the roadway.

The process I followed to achieve my final map outcome involved adding the geodatabase from our lab drive. Once I added the geodatabase to the project in the catalog pane, I added the data within the database to the main map frame. I then setup my symbology for each layer to each color you see above. I did this by finding the color schemes that contrast one another enough and display in a way that emphasizes the importance of each layer. The school dataset we utilized at first displayed all of the schools in Washington, D.C., so I needed to isolate the layer to only display schools within Ward 7 which is the target area. I did this by using the clip tool and created a new layer that only displayed the schools within Ward 7. Next we had to display the schools by the facility type, I did this by changing the symbology type from single layer to unique values. Once I did that, I selected the unique value I wanted to display called "FACUSE", this then displayed the symbology as three different types: elementary school, middle school, and high school. To differentiate between each value type, I organized the symbols by color and size. I also wanted to display the name of each school by a numerical value and including a table with the corresponding number and school name in the final map product. To achieve this, I created labels from the symbology and applied a custom callout to each symbol with their corresponding number and I ensured that the label displayed at the center of each point. Another layer we needed to include was the neighborhood clusters layer, but specifically the neighborhoods you see above. I isolated those neighborhoods by creating a definition query that included only those neighborhoods. One issue I encountered applying symbology occurred with my road layers. When I added an outline to the road layers it would show each intersection of roads and made the map very messy. To combat this issue, I used the merge tool for the Ward 7 roads to make them all one continuous road. This made it so that no more line breaks were being displayed. I applied this merge fix to each road layer I used. After completing the symbology customization I wanted to achieve, I copied each layer I wanted to include onto a new map frame for an inset map. Once that was complete, I added a new 8x11 layout and added both map frames to the layout and began formatting. Every map element you see was added via their corresponding tools, and a lot of effort was put into this map to reach what you see above.

This map was very enjoyable to make and I even utilized some of what I learned from it in my current job.