8 replies to this topic

[CHART]

Hoping that I used the term bivariate correctly...

I am putting an park atlas together (long ongoing personal project) and I have the following scenario.

A trail can have dual use depending on the season. I want to produce a one size fits all (winter and summer) representation of such a trail. Also to be noted is that the trails are also coded as per degree of difficulty and type of use.

My first though is to offset the trails and off I go, to the symbolization stage. (The final scale is 20K...)

However, I would like to know if I can be pointed to other methods, examples and ideas regarding the representation of linear features in such a case. I look around but did not find anything...

Much appreciated - and when I get around to working out the representation ect... I'll post for feedback (when all my other paying work is completed...)

Regards,

[Martin Gamache]

Here is a simple multivariate ( you have at least three variables and there may be more) model that can be expanded:

One way would be to have series of line styles that represent your main variables: trail use/type. This could be in two color choices. a black for summer and all season trails and an indigo or purple color for winter only trails. Difficulty could be shown with a red casing. For the trails that are all seasons you could add a wider line a tint of the winter color. This can be rasterized and blurred slightly with some transparency so that it doesnt take over.
 trail_scheme.gif   28.29K   202 downloads

[CHART]

Martin,

Thank you for your input.

I like the use of the casing to contain the trail.

I understand that the same symbology (e.g dotted line) can represents one type of usage in the winter and the same dotted line can represent a summer usage type.
e.g. dotted line = mountain bike and cross country skiing.
If I would like to have different representation (e.g. brush like line with bike icons and ski icons) I could have them side by side inside the casing and use different tints as you suggest to separate season within the casing. I would then drop the four season tint??...

Where it might get tricky is on a four season trail where the difficulty is different between summer and winter
e.g. same trail
summer = mountain bike, difficulty 2 (on a scale of 1 to 3, 3 being the harder)
winter = cross country, difficulty 3.
casings within casings ???

I'll run a few tests in Illustrator and see...

Thanks again.

[Martin Gamache]

Jacques,

It does get complicated, and probably why there has always been two versions of the Park map. If you look at Swiss topo ( my model for alot of things) they produce ski maps for winter use of their topo series, and summer versions for hikers. It does get very difficult to show all these variables and possible combinations. Maybe others will have better suggestions.


IMO from a business perspective it would make sense to have two or three versions of your atlas, to make a winter and a summer version is not too much extra work, and most users will then have to buy both versions.

Keep in mind also the conventions that people are used to for x-country ski trails already. The current map shows red, green and blue trails and folks are very used to seing them in this way. Having seperate versions would allow you to keep that convention and not alienate users. I'm not always in favour of sticking with conventions just for the sake of them but this may be one of those times.


From a design perspective and usability it would be much easier as well. Another thing to consider would be to have each season on facing pages in a third version of the atlas. A bigger book, but then again it can sell for more and once you have made the separate pages, it's not a big deal to put them side by side in one book. But then again who will want to carry such a thing in their pack?

mg

[CHART]

Yes it does get complicated.

You are right most will do two atlases, winter and summer.

Portability is important and the size of the atlas as been set at 4.25 x 11 sheet (for now), spiral binding (approx. 80 pages) . Printing is costly and my idea behind this was to 1, reduce my initial cost and 2, pass on some saving to the user, while maintaining a high standard of cartography.

But if the product is rendered useless because it is not done following some conventions or its usability is diminished then I made no gain.

Mind you the idea is challenging and maybe someone might have some nifty ideas...

thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,

[ELeFevre]

Jacques,

I would create two maps rather than one... winter and summer. The all inclusive approach sounds like a good idea (one map covering everything), but you do run the risk of confusing a fair number of your readers. I'm having a difficult time visualizing this map.... and I make multi-variate maps. Multivariate lines with three or more classified variables is difficult to justify IMO...especially when you are dealing with two very different seasons.

If you were creating this map for a very specific audience (i.e. seasoned hikers or climbers used to reading a wide variety of trail maps) I might feel different about it. I'm guessing this map would serve a general audience?

If you did create winter and summer maps, could you place them on the same page? one above and one below? Is this an option?

[CHART]

Yep,

After your comments, Erin and Martin I think I will stick to conventions. The idea might be interesting and possible technically but it will as you mention have an ill effect on the product and its intended audience. I also, was having a hard time visualizing it, thus the reason for my post.

I will stick to designing (two atlases) winter - summer.
Get the winter one done and get it printde for next summer and hope the small expected revenues it generates can get me the summer edition printed. My business model is not based on product creation but on services (bread and butter). My intent is to diversify a bit into product creation and see how it goes. (never to old to try out new avenues).

I have created Garmin data using the cGSPmapper module for clients and hope to take that expertise and use it to complement this product. I also wrote a program to import field data collected from a GPSmap76Cx directly into MapInfo via the gpx format. With WAAS enabled reception, 3 metres precision it pretty good for this type of mapping. But that is another story.

When the initial winter design is ready, I will post again.

Thanks for your insight.

[bchubb]

If you did create winter and summer maps, could you place them on the same page? one above and one below? Is this an option?

......or perhaps an inset showing either a reduced or simplified version of the other map on each. That would help sell the other map, as well as allow users to roughly compare the versions.

[CHART]

If you did create winter and summer maps, could you place them on the same page? one above and one below? Is this an option?

......or perhaps an inset showing either a reduced or simplified version of the other map on each. That would help sell the other map, as well as allow users to roughly compare the versions.

Good point, to be considered.

Thanks,