Module 1: Map Critique

 

This map does a really good job of meeting several map design principles including map substantial information, effectively label maps and minimize map crap. The map shows substantial information without being overcluttering, making it easy to understand its purpose. Lastly, the map is effectively labeled with easy to understand symbols, making the information easily communicable to the reader. I like that this map uses simple colors that are not distracting, making it easy on the eyes. Additionally, I particularly like the professional aesthetic, making the map appear credible and clean. Therefore, I believe this is a well-designed map. 

This map does a poor job of appealing to the map design principles, specifically map substantial information, effectively label things, and map layout. This map does not provide substantial information because a lot of it requires prior knowledge. For example you can infer that the map is trying to depict where the shows are based because you know that Grey’s Anatomy was placed in Seattle. This goes hand in hand with the critique of effectively labeling things. This map would improve if the labels were more intuitively labeled, perhaps with a legend or a more consistent labeling categorization. For instance, some of the TV shows are placed under a city versus some are just a state, so better categorizing these would make the map easier to understand. Lastly, the map layout adds to the confusion because the scales are off. I think the map would be easier to read and understand if the United States were at a larger scale and the labels were smaller and categorized. Therefore, I chose this as my poor-designed map. 

This lab taught me a lot about what to look for in a good map and showed a lot of good examples of maps that are easy to understand versus maps that are not so easy to understand. I learned about how the map design principles are applied to a map.