Module 3: Cartographic Design - Ward 7, Washington D.C Public School Locations

Module 3 introduced cartographic design techniques. For this assignment, I used ArcGIS Pro software to create a map of public schools located with Ward 7 in Washington D.C. Data was provided from the District of Columbia Open Data website in order to create a finalized map. The final map and discussion is below: 

Visual Hierarchy- The map shows visual hierarchy by the chosen symbology. Map elements with higher importance, specifically the school locations, are shown as bright orange to red colors. Also, the fonts showed the visual hierarchy, in that the title and legend fonts are bold and large size while the road names, source data are a small font size. Map elements that are less important, such as the north arrow and scale bar, are small as well. 

Contrast- Contrast is used to differentiate the school types. The colors range from orange, to red, to dark red to show the elementary, middle, and high schools within the public school data. Additionally, the point symbols go from small, to medium, to large size. 

Balance- The map is balanced by placing the map elements towards the edges of the map area. A map neat line encloses the entire map and gives a finished look. The title is centered at the top of the page and the inset and legend have similar widths. Both are placed in opposite corners. The remaining map elements, i.e. the north arrow, scale bar, source data, author, date, are placed in the remaining corners. All elements were placed so as not to cover any school locations, which are the main focus of the map. 

Figure-Ground- The green coloring of the map draws the eye to the Ward 7 area. Anything outside the subject area is a light beige color that does not distract from the main area. Map elements are also placed to cover areas of the map that are not the main focus. 

Techniques- Taking time to choose appropriate formatting was what took the most time when creating this map. Various colors, sizes, and layouts were tested to come up with the finalized result. Labeling was also a challenge, as some road labels were placed over more important map features. By converting the road labels to graphics, or even creating curved line text graphics, the labels were placed in locations that were the most visually pleasing. Overall, I am happy with the final result.