Philip's Super Terrific Webpage!!!

The two primary factors that I look for in a map are as follows: 1. it communicates it's point effectively to the end user. 2. It needs to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye and follow the general design principles that were discussed in class. This map does a good job aesthetically of catching the eye, and pulling you in to examine the details. This is especially important in the media rich Internet environment where you are constantly bombarded with images. Of the two maps, I feel that the Starbucks map is the most effective communicator, showing the relationship to the Starbucks product and the countries that produce the materials for the product. I particularly like the color coordination of the arrows to the source country and raw material it provides. The size of the circles indicating the number of Starbucks are large but not so distracting that it makes the map unreadable and gives the reader a good idea about the location and scale of consumption. The only problem that I have with the map is that overall scale is so large that it makes things a bit crowded on the page. If it was on the page alone without the McDonald's map I think it would solve that issue. The McDonald's map I find less appealing because I feel it doesn't make as strong of statement as the Starbucks map. So there are a bunch of McDonald's around the world, and? It doesn't do as good of a job demonstrating the production-consumption relationship as the Starbucks map.

I chose the Amazon Hydro-shed or Watershed map because of its simplicity and effective use of a border to highlight a specific area. Looking at the text elements, scale bar and north arrow I would say that this map was likely produced in ArcGIS but the author made the most of the limited cartographic tools available and it doesn't scream GIS! The focus on the watershed area is accomplished by using a thick, bright border with a shadow effect around it and lighter, duller area outside of the border. This clearly defines the area of interest without sacrificing the detail inside or outside of the watershed. The text on the map helps the user to understand the more technical aspects the author is trying to communicate with the map and does not distract from the image. The standard color palate of a relief map stands out well against the simple white background. There seems to be an effort to maintain simplicity with the map that to me is characteristic of a European style of design.

Although this map is not the most aesthetically pleasing it still communicates it point clearly and effectively. The "Who Owns the West" western font could have stayed at Knott's Berry Farm, but the subtitle clearly and concisely tells the user what they are looking at. The use of a state shape proportional to the percentage of federal land inside each state does a good job of communicating the authors point about the majority of Federally owned land being out West. Another small gripe I have with this map is that in the Northeast the percentage numbers are pulled outside of the state for font uniformity and readability but the color used for the dotted line is so light it is hard to know what number corresponds to what state. Despite it's flaws the general layout is familiar and simple and the colors could be a little softer but clearly communicate the idea making this a good map.

Wow! where to begin with this map. This map should never have been published. I could not see this map being especially useful even if it was accompanying a document or report. The title doesn't say much and the legend gives an idea of the elements but does not really give any insight into what the author is trying to convey. There is no scale bar or north arrow to or any other clue as to the location. The only hint you get about it's location is NC counties, but the overall shape of the counties does not match the state of North Carolina, so is this a region or ? The map has no clear definition or borders with public lands falling outside of the counties, and overall the map has too much white space, lacks framing or design elements that would improve it aesthetically. Overall poor communication and poor design choices equal bad map.

This is a good example of bad design choices and leaving out key map elements prevent the author of the map from communicating the issue effectively. I believe from what I read, this map is related to a failure in the water delivery system in the Lake Tahoe, Reno Nevada area. The lack of a legend or scale bar makes it difficult to understand the size of the area we are dealing with and what the symbols represent. Is the area 20 sq miles,, 200 or 2000? Does the red cross hatch represent urban areas or incidents such as a flood? If you are dealing with a water related issue is it wise to make the entire land mass blue? Even if this map was tailored to a specific audience, the map designer should have asked these questions because, outside of a water related map in a general area on the California-Nevada border this map is not saying much.

Well this is not the worst map as it does communicate the idea effectively in regards to water consumption by state. I am just not sure that it is particularly useful for serious analysis. Obviously the states with the highest populations use the most water. I think maybe per-capita water usage by state or county would do a much better job of communicating water usage, because you can show who uses water efficiently and who are the water wasters. Also water policy is typically a local or regional issue so state consumption may be of less importance. The other key issue I have is that the color scheme used is much too bright and a bit irritating visually, but that may be a consequence of limited abilities of electronic mapping if the map was made in the early 1990's.

My goal for the map was to provide the same basic information that was used as the reference map we were given as well as to add some geographic reference to the map. I also wanted to maintain a small size of the map so in order to maintain portability and for the reader to be able to see the entire system at a glance. I made a deliberate decision to minimize the elements that I added to the map, to maintain its legibility and to not distract from the primary purpose of the map, which is to show the rail system and each stop on it.

The first design element that I added was the major highways of the L.A. area. I chose to put the major highways of the area on the map for two reasons. The first is that highways serve as major geographic landmarks in Southern California and often locations are referenced in their relationship to a highway or an intersection of highways. The second is purpose is that a growing number of commuters are switching to public transportation as fuel prices skyrocket, so the relationship of the rail lines and the freeway would quickly allow a commuter to determine the feasibility and route between work and home. The freeways were done in white so that they were clearly visible on the brown background of the land but they are not bold or distracting, which was the case when I tested them in black.

The second design element that was added was to create an inset of the downtown area. This reason for this was simply to improve the readability of the map and the downtown area in particular. With so many stations in such a small area, the area had to be expanded in order show the station names for all the stations in the area. In this section in particular you can see the bold colorful lines of the each individual line, a theme that was carried on throughout the map in order emphasize the rail and transitways and to allow them to be quickly identified.

The final element that was added was to give as many city names in the area in order to give the reader an improved sense of location but without distracting or causing the reader to confuse city names and station names. This was achieved by keeping the place names a neutral gray color and adding some transparency to the font, so that while still readable they are not crowding out the station names.

Overall I feel that the goal of improving the map and giving the routes a basic geographic orientation that it was lacking in the reference map has been accomplished, considering the timeframe allotted. I could have made some more minor tweaks and added parking or some other small bits of information but I would leave the overall map layout the same.