M1 Map Evaluation

 This assignment was to evaluate a well done map and a poor map based off of cartographic design principles. 

1.

-This was the example of a well designed map I decided to evaluate. Overall this map was created with purpose, and utilized colors and symbols that portrayed that purpose. It used neutral colors for the topic of hazardous fuels treatment, as to not evoke emotions about this from the viewer. It uses topographic design to show a relative size of these areas to the mountainous landscape, also giving the viewer an idea of the lands value. It gave an appropriate amount of information for a college-educated audience, likely working in the energy, conservation, environmental, or land management fields. It did a good job of highlighting the focus-area, and greying out irrelevant areas. Texts were easy to read, but not over-bearing. The symbol for highways and rivers, however, looked too similar and should probably have been different colors. The layout of all the pieces are balanced and sensible, giving the audience an aesthetically pleasing look, as well as evoking a sense of organization about the information displayed. It says "this is not chaos, this is under control." The scale and legends are appropriate in their content and size. The title and subtitle give a good idea of what is being shown. 

2.

-This was my example of a poorly designed map. First of all, there is absolutely no map elements to show us what is being mapped. It is somewhat obvious that it is a map of hurricanes, but when? How large? There is lots of information that should be explained to any viewer for this kind of map. Secondly, everything is way too clustered together. There is no way to sense how many hurricanes are being displayed here. It's just chaos (which admittedly, could have a place in a map about natural disaster). i would like to see a map like this done and split into a few different time frames, to give a less chaotic view of the number of hurricanes. Also, I do not think the symbology is very good. I think it would be best to have hurricane or "spinning" symbols going with the paths. These random lines could be interpreted as shipping paths or something of that sort, if one didn't have prior knowledge about hurricane paths.  

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