6 replies to this topic

[Becky]

Hi Everyone,

I am making a map to accompany a procedural document for a Carcass Disposal Project. The project focuses on Burial as the disposal method if a disease such as BSE or Hoof and Mouth occurred. The map shows our County's livestock intensity and the chosen suitable sites for carcass disposal. Again I am looking for some constructive criticism.

Thanks!

The map is in pdf format, and is 771.32 KB

Attached Files

•  LivestockDensity_SuitableSites.pdf   252.68K   202 downloads

[heath b]

Hello Becky!

What an unfortunate subject. Of course, I'm a card-carrying carnivore so I have to accept the reality of the situation. I love the use of the baby animal images to help temporarily distract me from the true subject of the map!

The first thing I noticed is that the background blue is so saturated that it draws the eye away from the map data. Try toning it down so that the colors of your charts and icons stand out. It will also make your black text more readable.

There's a typo in the title -- DIPOSAL (disposal).

I would clean up the legend items by grouping them together, including the north arrow and scale bar.

I look forward to seeing more work.

Heath

[razornole]

I'm with Heath on the blue, however, my first thought was that this was an island nation.

Blue is a calming color, and disposal is not such a calming subject.

To me the thumbtacks are useless, are they marking the sector coins or a location? A leader would be much more appropriate and professional.

Your legend shows ~15 categories, yet I only see about 4 represented on the map. Could you use an asterisk and say something like only data > 1% are represented to simplify things?

I would argue that your data need to be range-graded, not continuous.

Livestock Density? Density represents number per area, and you have given no such figure. All that you have given us is the total head count of livestock i.e. raw data.

I think you would be better off with a choroplethic map if you want to measure density. Furthermore, that would unclutter the map and show me the important thing, where can I bury my dead.

Your background is clipping some of you sector coins.

Hope this helps, and will look forward to updates.

kru

[dsl]

Interesting topic, and a nice start with the map.

I would like to see some labels of a few places to orient myself (lakes, cities, etc.)

Personally speaking, I don't like the 3D charts. I don't think they add to the data. I mean the 3D part, so I would change those to simple clean 2D charts. And on the map as was suggested, maybe choropleth, or if you want to show raw values (choropleth maps should only use derived data) consider using dot map where each dot represents X number of animals. The dot could be colored based on species. Might look too cluttered though.

Hope that helps,
David

[DaveB]

In addition to the above comments:
I can't match the pinkish-purplish color on four of the pie charts with a color in the legend - is it chicken or maybe turkey? The colors don't look the same to me.
I can't really read the labels on the left hand side of the graph.
Some of the pie charts look squared off at the bottom edge of the 3-D effect.
A couple of the pie charts are sitting behind the blue background.

[BioGeoMan]

Hi Becky,

I agree that the blue is a bit distracting. I also think that most of the symbols on the map either correspond to beef or chicken, I can't really discern where most of the other animals are being represented. Also, the purple that represents the broiler chickens on the map doesn't seem to match the color shown in the legend...maybe its just a monitor thing. A few other comments

• Show the absolute numbers of the total livestock per category in your graph. The smaller amounts all seem similar when there may be significant differences.
• Instead of showing a continuum on the scale, maybe show 5 different sizes and their corresponding amount, it is rather difficult to interpolate between such a small and large symbol.
• Name the locations of the suitable sites. You may also want to stray away from using the pins as locators...there are many other, more suitable options.
• Name major streams, towns, roads. Label the City of Lethbridge on the large map.
• Move the north arrow near the scale. Usually I would recommend being creative in placement of such items, but this is a technical map so to speak, so having all the reference info in the same spot would be advised...but not necessary .
• Inset map: Label Alberta for non-Canadian users.

Thanks,

[MapMedia]

Hi Becky - Thanks for sharing.

Great start and a unique subject matter for sure

I would make the poster so that the most pertinent info jumps out at the reader - as is easily and quickly grasped.
With that said, I would remove the blue focus, and emphasize the sites, and the Suitable sites.

Legend - go for a standard legend, maybe vertical group of colored boxes with the most common types at the top (yellow and purple)

Suitable Sites - instead of pushpins, use callouts with leader lines and big labels since you are communicating you have found a handful of sites.

Map - Label Major Highways, rivers, and major towns/cities. If there are urban areas, and you have urban layers, maybe show this.

Pie size - instead of the gradient, show the average sizes, maybe there are 5 or 7 of these, and indicate their value. This way ppl can be sure they know the value of a given pie.
(imho, I would lose the 3D pie and go with a 2D pie). Cleaner I think.

Bump up the text blocks - nice and clear.

Looking forward to your revision! -Chris