Elements of Map Composition

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Elements of Map Composition

• OR
• How to make a decent map!

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Steps to Creating a Map

• Define the Purpose of the map
• Restatement into a design problem
• Visualization to Creation
• Design solution - arrangement of maps image
  elements to facilitate communication
• Sort of an outline
• Graphic design

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Elements of a thematic map

• Title
• Legend
• Scale
• Credits
• Mapped and unmapped areas
• Graticule
• Borders and neatlines
• Symbols
• Place names and labels

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Title
Mapped Area
Unmapped Area
Border or Neatline
Legend
No Place Names -(
Neatline
Text box
Gradicule
Graphic Scale
Credits
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The elements one-by-one

• Title
• Draws attention by virtue of its size (big!)
• focuses attention on primary purpose of content
  of map
• not always needed
• Legend
• Principle reference to symbology
• MUST be there

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The elements one-by-one

• Scale
• A MUST!
• Types
• graphic -- the bar
• verbal -- 1 1 mile (Not good now because too
  many people copy maps and Xerox machines will
  change the scale)
• a ratio 1/24,000 (Not good either although it
  may indicate accuracy)
• Because of ubiquitous nature of Xerox machines
  the graphic scale is a must, the others are
  optional

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The elements one-by-one

• Credits
• another, older, term for metadata
• Some metadata can be placed on map
• data source
• statement of accuracy, both spatial and attribute
• date data collected, date map made
• your name, assignment etc

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The elements one-by-one

• Mapped and unmapped areas
• Objects, land, water, and other geographical
  features important to the purpose of the map
• makes the composition a map rather than a diagram
• Graticule
• a grid
• Often omitted
• useful if location info is important and there
  are no features like roads or steams
• The Graticule CAN take up space and thus reduce
  white space and change balance (see later)

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The elements one-by-one

• Borders and neatlines
• Optional around map elements
• Not optional (usually) around the entire
  composition because it ties the parts of the
  composition together!
• Borders serve to restrain eye movement
• Neatlines are
• finer than borders
• drawn inside borders
• mainly decoration

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The elements one-by-one

• Symbology
• can be actual symbols (style of city point)
  and/or colors and patterns
• most important part of map -- if user does not
  know what the symbolization is the map is useless
• Designer has little control over placement
  (location should be as accurate as possible given
  scale) but can control size and color

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The elements one-by-one

• Place names and labels
• Primary means of communicating to user
• Orients user on map (similar to Graticule)
• Can provide important info re map purpose

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Composition

• You have all the data (coverages, shapes)
• You have the symbolization plan
• Now you have to visualize the map
• A creative process
• Trial and error process
• Arrangement of composition parts
• Where to put borders, neatlines
• what style of borders, neatlines

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Composition

• Purpose of composition
• Forces designer or organize the visual material
• Stresses the purpose of the map
• Directs the users attention
• Develops an aesthetic approach for the map

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Compositon Planar Organization

• Balance
• visual impact of arrangement
• is the map heavy at top, bottom, sides???

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Visual weight

• depends on location
• obj near center has less weight
• obj weight increases with distance from center
• obj at top are heavier than those at bottom
• obj on right are heavier than those on left
• depends on size (Duh!)
• depends on color, interest, and isolation
• RedgtBlue, Brightgtdark
• complex gt simple
• isolated gt groups

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Unequal divisions of space more interesting than
equal divisions
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Which is better balanced?
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More Visual Balance
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Movement of readers eye - upper left to lower
right
Field
Focus
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Using Eye Movement
Eye goes left to right! Map?Legend
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St. Louis too far from visual center, balance not
bad, however
Better, but a little heavy on right
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Location of St, Louis
Legend -adf asdf adfafffdsf
Neatline around map part make for better balance
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Location of St, Louis
Legend -adf asdf adfafffdsf
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The grid of dots is there because I copied the
layout window with Paint Shot Pro and it captured
all the dots too. If you save the compositon it
will no contain the dots
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Different Arrangements of composition features
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Size / white space problems
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Text

• Use mixture of upper and lower case
• ALL UPPER CASE IS HARDER TO READ
• Use sans serif text
• No fancy fonts
• Big print for important stuff
• Little print for not so important stuff

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Using Color

• Color is tricky
• There are definite color preferences
• There are definite color combination preferences
• There are standard color codes (like for
  planning)

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ArcViews colors
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So

• Creating maps is a creating a document for a
  specific purpose -- to communicate something to
  the reader
• It is an iterative process
• There are some basic rules or guides that can be
  used

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Our Evaluation Criteria

• Spelling, title(concise), credit (name) -7 pts.
• Scale, north arrow, legend - 6 pts.
• Boundaries - 6 pts
• Balance,Color, Choice of symbol, labels (limited)
  - 6 pts.