Tag Archives: map design
Changing landscapes: Designing the next generation of online Topographic Maps
By Damien Demaj
Last week we launched a refresh of the World Topographic Map and in this blog entry we explore the design process, the design objectives and outline five key changes to look out for. Continue reading
Telling thematic stories in ArcGIS Online
By Kenneth Field (Research Cartographer), Damien Demaj (ArcGIS Online Cartography) and Linda Beale (Geoprocessing)
At the 2012 Esri Education GIS Conference and the 2012 Esri International User Conference, we demonstrated how you can build informative thematic maps using the ArcGIS System. The purpose of the sessions was to take relatively simple datasets and create a range of alternative thematic map types that told a story in different ways. This demonstrated the techniques for creating the maps using ArcGIS for Desktop as our authoring environment and ArcGIS Online as our publishing mechanism. As the XXX Olympiad is currently taking place in London, UK we illustrated how alternative maps can be made to tell different stories of the relative success of nations over the period since the first Olympic games in 1896. Continue reading
Using a mapmaking checklist for map design
By Kenneth Field, Research Cartographer, and Damien Demaj, Online Cartographic Product Engineer
We all have favorite maps that we think are great, but rather than just saying a map looks great, how many of us are able to take a critical look at it, evaluate it, and explain why it looks great? Having the ability to reflect on and evaluate maps as information products is important to understanding effective cartographic design so you can optimize communication of the intended message in your own maps as well as be able to understand why other maps work. In this blog entry, we’ll briefly look at some static maps and a web map to see what we think makes them great and then show you how using a checklist gives you the tools to reflect on maps in the same way. Continue reading
