Cartography: Module 1

Map Critique


For this assignment, I tried to come up with the most practical example of maps where the legibility and usefulness affects people on an everyday basis. The first thing that sprung to mind was map apps; Google vs. Waze vs. Apple Maps, but since we're looking at the history of mapmaking in this module, I scratched back a bit further and dawned upon subway maps. They're some of the last actual physical paper maps that real people hold, decipher, and depend upon. When getting from point A to B on foot or in a car when confronted with a new place, I immediately whip out my phone and go to Google maps, however when it comes to public transportation, I find it much easier to wrap my head around train/bus connections with a map pamphlet in hand.  Whenever you venture into a new city and try to tackle a foreign public transportation system, the value of a good map can be the difference between a smooth journey and precious hours of lost travel time caught up in confusion and dismay at mind boggling connections.  

One of the most iconic subway systems in the world is the London Underground, known for its colorful, clean, map, making the city fabulously accessible. I knew the London Underground was going to be my example of a well-designed map, but upon searching for a poorly designed subway map counterpart, I stumbled upon this geographically correct version of the Tube. (This map was obtained via a resident’s freedom of information request to the UK government and apparently generated quite reluctantly.) I must point out that these maps were generated with different purposes in mind: The original underground map is designed for clarity and legibility and the geographically correct one was created with spatial accuracy in mind. For the purpose of this assignment, we’re going to assume that these maps are intended to help you get around London, and I’m going to point out the merits of the inaccurate map for transit’s sake and will do my best to explain why geographic accuracy isn’t strictly necessary for the motive of successfully maneuvering one’s self through a subway system. Both of these designs have pros and cons, but overall, I think most would agree that the simpler Tube map is more useful for navigating the London Underground.


Well Designed Map:

Standard London Underground Map

Poorly Designed Map:

Spatially Accurate London Underground Map


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Module 5: Exploring and Manipulating Data

Image
 Module 5: Exploring and Manipulating Data  This module focused on the implementation of cursors and dictionaries within newly created geodatabases. We learned a lot of different functions and techniques applying to geospatial data. The most notable problem I encountered this week was compiling the search cursor queries into one script. One of the steps in the project was to create a Search Cursor for the cities layer to find the Name, Population (POP_2000), and Feature of all County Seat Cities. Initially, I could only get the cursor to run by dividing each of these categories into a separate cursor file, generating a long list of either city names, populations, and features, respectively. This was for all intents and purposes functional, but was practically illegible and a definite eyesore. By trial and error I was able to create separate variables, and vitally separate print row.getValue statements for each of my fields to make the same script generate all inquiries simulta...
Read more

GIS internship: Post #4

 GIS Day   This week, our internship cohort was assigned to organize a GIS day celebration to bring people together through shared interest in remote sensing and geo-data. Luckily, I already had something up my sleeve that fit the bill, so I'm wholeheartedly embracing the serendipitous coincidence without any remorse. I joined forces with the GIS staff at my university to put together a drone course on campus, courtesy of the kind folk at Gulf Coast State College (GCSC), with whom we connected via a GIS user's group conference a few months back. This course will teach participants how to collect, manage, process, and interpret a suite of aerial data with the added plus of learning how to fly a drone... very cool stuff. The application of remote sensing capabilities in the GCSC lab is emergency management focused, so we will likely be interpreting data through a public safety lens, which is a very interesting perspective, likely novel to most of us.   The course start...
Read more