In this week's lab, we were tasked with evaluating and critiquing one well designed map and one poorly designed map.
The map shown here is the example I chose for the well-designed map.
I was inspired by one of the maps provided in the R drive to find a better map of downtown Seattle with points of interest. The purpose is to show interesting places for people visiting downtown Seattle, WA. This map is very well designed and easy to read especially for those visiting the city for the first time. Streets are clearly labeled, major transit systems are highlighted, and points of interest are clearly displayed and eye-catching.
The map elements are well placed and balanced and the addition of the light rail stops is helpful for navigating. The placement of the legend with the light rail stops in the top right corner makes sense for this map as most points of interest are located towards the bottom.
The symbols used for the points of interest are very well done and convey precisely what it is visitors are meant to see at that location. The symbols also stand out well against the plain base map without being garish.
This map was obtained from Visit Seattle website.
https://visitseattle.org/visitor-information/maps/
Next is the example I chose for the poorly designed map.
This just looks like a collage someone put together for their map aesthetic. The assumption for this maps purpose is city navigation. However, it’s very chaotic and difficult to decipher. There is a lot of overlap of text and symbols making the map difficult to read. The north arrow is far too big and stands out. The scale placement and size don’t make sense. Some symbols used are easy to understand such as the hospital and restaurant symbols but others like the red star are hard to interpret their significance.
While there are important map elements present such as the north arrow and the scale bar, this map is missing a legend which would help in figuring out what some of those other symbols mean. A title would have helped in figuring out this maps purpose as well.
The choice of color for some aspects make sense here. It’s clear that the major highways are red and the rivers are blue, however, what is less clear is the use of the purple buffer around parts of the river and the pink and green blobs throughout the map. The borders around some of the text needed to be a different color than that of the major highways.
