Intro to GIS: Week 2 – Own Your Map

A map of the UWF Campus location within
Escambia County, Florida. 

     This week’s lab assignment focuses on exploring personal cartographic style and gaining a familiarity with customization options in ArcMap. It also introduces inset maps, neatlines, and legend modifications. All of these elements, when designed effectively, contribute to the readability and comprehension of a map. Various elements can be refashioned to suit a particular cartographer’s aesthetic. The result of this lab is a map that exhibits my aesthetic preferences (while trying to keep in mind the tenets of successful map design and, eventually, the end user). I am sure some of these preferences will change as I learn additional cartography skills, have my maps critiqued, and become more comfortable with map design in general.

     The lab walks through how to add layers to a data frame, what metadata is and how to examine it, and how to add a frames around not only an inset but the map as a whole. It introduces new (to me) map modifications like clipping a data frame (bounding information within a particular extent) and editing the symbology of a point on a layer, as well. In choosing the color of Escambia County, I had to begin thinking about color schemes critically. It would not do to color a particular geographic area blue if the map were to also display any bodies of water. The goal of a map to make information clear and not to obfuscate data. So, I went with a color I thought was easy on the eyes. 

     After concluding this exercise, I have a map that shows the location of the UWF campus within Escambia County, Florida and an inset map of the state of Florida. The inset map displays the 67 counties of Florida and their respective boundaries. Additionally, the map shows two interstates (I-10, I-110) near the UWF campus and highlights major rivers. Necessary elements such as a legend, title(s), scale, north arrow, data source, and authorship are also found on the map. This exercise did not take me as long as the last lab. Some of the experimenting I did last week with customization helped me feel confident that I could navigate those options again. I enjoyed taking my first steps toward developing a unique cartographic style. How could that not be fun?