M1 Lab: Map Design

 

For the module 1 lab assignment, we compared examples of a well-designed map to a poorly-designed map. The learning outcomes expected from this exercise were for us to understand common map design principles, be able to identify examples of good and poor map design, and provide an evaluation overview for each map.

The map above is the one I chose as an example of a poorly-designed map. The symbology on this map is supposed to depict the various population sizes for the capital cities in each U.S. state. However, this map is lacking in most aspects of the key map elements. There is no scale representation, the population sizes represented have no unit of measurement, there is no other information on the map besides the relative scale depicted by the green circles, and you can't really tell what the actual population of the capital cities is.


The map above is the one I chose as an example of a well-designed map. It has all of the required map elements, is laid out in an easy-to-read fashion, and presents the information that it intended to very clearly. They even took it a step further and included a small list of the ancestry populations that were too small to include in the "Ancestry with the largest population in county" legend. 

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