Module 3

 

Module 3 Lab

In this module I created a map layout of an area of Washington D.C. that is called Ward 7 and to visually represent the public schools within that focus area while also preserving as much of the map features that exist so that someone could reasonably understand what they were looking at. 

This map took extensively more time than previous ones I have worked on, mainly because the raw data sets that I was given for each of the features had so much extra information that needed to be removed or ignored. 

I opted for removing the unwanted data because it I find it much easier and simpler to work with smaller data sets rather then dense files of information I don't plan on using. 

    However, this lab also reminded me why it is so IMPORTANT to read directions because there were many potential mistakes I would have most certainly made had I not read the lab all the way through like it says to. 

    One example of this is a set of instructions on picking one neighborhood from each cluster to represent the cluster. As I originally examined the data on the map I was scratching my head at how in the world I was going to add all of those neighborhood names in and still make it look good. 

    Another example of what I'm talking about is that the Lab instructions instruct you to only include the schools in the legend for the final layout. Unfortunately I had spent a decent amount of time organizing my legend before realizing this. 

Overall I think this lab was a good way to implement some of Gestalt's principles even when trying to represent a very small sub section of data. 

    One of the ways that I implemented visual hierarchy in my map for this lab was by first deciding on a color scheme that would wasn’t too loud or noisy because the information I was focused on was very limited to only a handful of points of information. In order to avoid suffocating the points of data that were the most important, the background colors couldn’t compete for any of the viewers attention, in fact, I want the viewer to pay less attention to the unimportant map elements such as the topography, streets, and etc. than they do to the different kinds of public schools in ward 7.

    The overall color palette is a pastel and the symbols for the schools was a sharp blue, orange, and red.Among those things, I also made sure the sizes of text, and objects such as the roads natural landscape features did not draw too much attention.

    I made sure to in order to implement adequate contrast among the different map features by zooming in as my main layout map to ward seven and adding a similar style inset map of the greater surrounding area that included Virginia and Washing D.C.

            The Colors are of a similar shade throughout the map so that there isn’t a giant fissure between ward 7 and the greater DC area. In order to achieve a better contrast further yet was to add a background color to the layout of a light shaded blue in order to help Ward 7 stand even better as the focus area.