Introduction / Overview

Introduction / Overview

Hello! My name is Jim Orunmbe, I am an IT major and currently reside in Pensacola Florida. I am also currently in the Army Reserve and a full-time student. I invest my free time with my girlfriend-Tolu, reading, and volunteering. I also enjoy outdoor fun stuff such as soccer, running and mountain biking. I'm in this class in order to earn GIS Certificate and I do not have any prior  GIS experience. As of now, my goal is to use the knowledge gained from this course to enhance my job in the military, maybe something greater in the civilian world later down the road.

Here's my Story Map Link: http://arcg.is/1mSnBSI

Map Evaluation Synopses of a Well-designed and a Poorly-designed map.

   Sample of a Well-designed Map: The City of Bellevue.

I consider the above map to be a well-designed map.

Map principles in support:

1.     Graphical excellence. This map is well-designed because it has interesting data on the map that are also represented on the Legend in the bottom-left-hand-corner.

2.     Maximize the data-ink ratio. This map maximized the data-to-ink ratio.

3.     Clear, detailed, and thorough labeling is used. I really like the fact that this map has scale on the legend (this will come handy where distance between 2 or more points are needed.) It also has the cardinal representation of the map orientation.

Sample of a Poorly-designed map: US 1999 Capital Population.

I think the above map is poorly designed.

Map principles in support of my conclusion:

1.     Principle 7. This map violates Tufteism 7, it lacks details and clarity evident in the overlapping circles all over the map. It’s hard to interpret or make sense of.

2.     This map violates Principle 8. The legend is poorly designed, take for instance the following city/town: Carson City on the west coast, Cheyenne, and Pelena have one thing in common -  they all no statistical representation in the Legend. It appears to me that the value falls between “.10” and “.66.” Map users should not be left to speculating the value of what the map represents.

3.     Scale: I think this map failed to meet its objective because the circular representation on the map and the legend did not match ( I measured the radii of the circles.) The scale of cycles on legend did not accurately represent cycles on the map.