Cartographic Skills - Module 1 Lab: Map Critique

In this week's Module, I learned about the history of cartography and the important principles when designing a map. I had to apply the knowledge that I learned to this week's lab assignment which was evaluating two different maps of my choice. One map being a well-designed example and the other being a poor-designed example. Here are the two maps which I selected for this assignment with the synopsis for each of them.

Well-designed Map:

The ‘South Carolina Wildlife Management Game Zones’ map was able to show what counties are a part of which game zone throughout the state of South Carolina. Each zone had a number and color assigned to it so people who are viewing the map will be able to see which counties fall under certain game zones. The map met the criteria of Tufteisms’ Commandment 1 in that the map was able to convey the data and information in design suitable for the viewer to understand quickly without having to work too hard on trying to interpret the meaning of the map. Also, the map met the criteria of Tufteisms’ Commandment 4. The map minimized the map crap which makes the reading of the map easier to view and understand in a short period of time without the clutter of redundant data and useless nonrelated data on the map. This map fits my aesthetic views due to the fact that that I was able to immediately understand the data that the map presents. Along with immediate comprehension of the map, I really liked how the data and the map elements were organized. The organization gives the map a professional feel to it which I would like to have my future maps to emulate. The third component of the map that I liked, there wasn’t a lot of map crap. The map gives you enough information without you having to read between the lines trying to decipher all the map crap. 

Poor-designed Map:

This map of what I assumed to be the location of hotels in Barcelona is poorly designed. When viewing this map, it feels very disorganize and cluttered which makes it difficult to interpret the data being presented on the map. It seems apparent that the mapmaker did not have any knowledge of the Map Design Principles when creating this map. The first Tufteism’s Commandment, either not know by map creator or not adhered to, was number one in not presenting the data in a well-designed format. All of the data that is present feels quite cluttered and the ideas of the map are very obscure which leads the viewer having to take a longer period of time to interpret the map. The second offense of the map creator was to break Tufteism’s Commandment 4. There is too much map crap present on the map. The mapmaker spelled out every hotel’s name in the area which overwhelms the viewer. The mapmaker could of assigned each hotel a number and then used the numbers in place of the written text on the map.  To improve this map, the first action to take is to extend the map extent to encompass all of the hotels that are mentioned inside the format so the map doesn’t feel so clutter. The next action is balancing out the page to help organize the map elements in a logical way. To do this one should put border around the city of Barcelona and zoom out slightly to give room to the map elements, such as scale bar, North Arrow, and other important elements in the blank space provided. The third action is to collect the data of the streets where the hotels are located. To collect the data, the mapmaker could use previous street data of Barcelona and overlap the graphics with their data to combine them.