7 replies to this topic

[valhalarising]

 LenapeManhattanMap.jpg   393.08K   194 downloadsJust looking to get all of your guys advice. To give a background, I'm currently a college student in a GIS program. This is really the first true attempt at cartography that I've done. Thanks!

[razornole]

For starters I would make sure that the legend matches the basemap. None of the colors correlate to each other. IMO there are way too many variables for a static map, I could never differentiate between six shades of green, esp if they are semi-transparent. You will also want to clean up your legend as well, for example if you capitalize communities do it throughout. Why are some plural and others not. Could you just map/label Lenape Village/Cropland and then have a title in your legend that reads Ecological Communities; Forest, Marsh, Tidal, Deepwater, etc... that way you don't have to keep repeating Communities.

Your title reads Manhattan Island 1609, I would go out on a limb and say that all those piers, streets, blocks, cities, etc... did not exist in 1609. Your title should state what the map is. In your case, Present day Manhattan Island with ecological communities of 1609 overlaid (or something along that line, obviously it needs to be more curt).

There is a nice clean feel to this map, but that might come at a communicative cost.

Hope this helps,
kru

[valhalarising]

For starters I would make sure that the legend matches the basemap. None of the colors correlate to each other. IMO there are way too many variables for a static map, I could never differentiate between six shades of green, esp if they are semi-transparent. You will also want to clean up your legend as well, for example if you capitalize communities do it throughout. Why are some plural and others not. Could you just map/label Lenape Village/Cropland and then have a title in your legend that reads Ecological Communities; Forest, Marsh, Tidal, Deepwater, etc... that way you don't have to keep repeating Communities.

Your title reads Manhattan Island 1609, I would go out on a limb and say that all those piers, streets, blocks, cities, etc... did not exist in 1609. Your title should state what the map is. In your case, Present day Manhattan Island with ecological communities of 1609 overlaid (or something along that line, obviously it needs to be more curt).

There is a nice clean feel to this map, but that might come at a communicative cost.

Hope this helps,
kru

Thanks. I'll have to look at the Legend versus basemap. Believe it or not I cut down the variables a heck of a lot. There were originally over 30. My biggest worry is that there are 3-4 locations of Lenape villages/cropland that are very small so obviously they are hard to see. I'm a bit stuck on how to emphasize their presence.

I will make sure to fix up the Legend, title, and work on the color choices a bit. Do you have any recommendations on a better color mixture?

Thanks again for the advice!

[Thad]

For your colors. http://colorbrewer2.org/ Try quantitative.

for the smaller sections you could use an inset map to blow them up, but the smaller areas would need to be fairly close together.

Great start though.

[valhalarising]

For your colors. http://colorbrewer2.org/ Try quantitative.

for the smaller sections you could use an inset map to blow them up, but the smaller areas would need to be fairly close together.

Great start though.

Yeah unfortunately they are on completely opposite ends of the map. Wasn't practical for insets.

[razornole]

For starters I would make sure that the legend matches the basemap. None of the colors correlate to each other. IMO there are way too many variables for a static map, I could never differentiate between six shades of green, esp if they are semi-transparent. You will also want to clean up your legend as well, for example if you capitalize communities do it throughout. Why are some plural and others not. Could you just map/label Lenape Village/Cropland and then have a title in your legend that reads Ecological Communities; Forest, Marsh, Tidal, Deepwater, etc... that way you don't have to keep repeating Communities.

Your title reads Manhattan Island 1609, I would go out on a limb and say that all those piers, streets, blocks, cities, etc... did not exist in 1609. Your title should state what the map is. In your case, Present day Manhattan Island with ecological communities of 1609 overlaid (or something along that line, obviously it needs to be more curt).

There is a nice clean feel to this map, but that might come at a communicative cost.

Hope this helps,
kru

Thanks. I'll have to look at the Legend versus basemap. Believe it or not I cut down the variables a heck of a lot. There were originally over 30. My biggest worry is that there are 3-4 locations of Lenape villages/cropland that are very small so obviously they are hard to see. I'm a bit stuck on how to emphasize their presence.

I will make sure to fix up the Legend, title, and work on the color choices a bit. Do you have any recommendations on a better color mixture?

Thanks again for the advice!

I would have to ask what kind of map is this. Cultural or Ecological. If cultural then leave Lenape, if ecological I would put the villages along with the cropland and just call the areas as Disturbed/Modified in the legend with an asterisk and then place a codicil somewhere low in the visual hierarchy explaining that the disturbed areas are Lenape villages and croplands. Furthermore, I would make the color diverse from the others, like a dark grey?

kru

If this were my client and they asked for me to map all of these variables, I would suggest a diptych. One terrestrial and one marine. That way you only get about 6 categories per map.

[DaveB]

I wouldn't use a quantitative color scheme. This is not quantitative data as far as I can tell. But even with qualitative data there is sometimes a hierarchy. Maybe you can organize the categories in some logical way? That can help with picking color schemes and help the map reader get the map's message, especially when there are more than a few categories.
I would lose the bolded type in the legend. For the very small areas a strong color would help them stand out. Label things on the map if you can.
The map surrounds seem scattered. The title in one corner, the north arrow in another, the scale bar crowded against the legend, which seems like it's dominating the map a bit. The overall design of the layout could use some thought and organization, too. Look at how you can make a pleasing design that organizes the map surrounds logically and aesthetically.

[Agnar Renolen]

I just wonder why you have map labels outside the area of discourse, and none inside. It should be the other way around.