Map Critique Week One

This week  Learning Objectives: 1)Upon completion of this exercise students should be able to Understand common map design principles. 2)Identify examples of good and poor map design.  3) Conduct thorough map evaluations, providing an evaluation overview and constructive critique for each example. 

I chose this as an example of a good map:

Here is a little bit about why I choose this as an example of a good map:  This map has lots of map elements: Title, North arrow, Scale bar, Legend, and the author information.  The information is clearly and efficiently communicated.  The title provides the location of the information as well as the information to be communicated (South Carolina, ,game zones).  The color choice is pleasing to the eye, different enough the changes are easily recognizable without being overwhelming.  There is a balance to the map overall.  The information is not crowded together and there are not large empty spaces.  

 And this is an example of a poor map:

Here is a little bit about why I choose this as an example of a poor map:  This map contains no map elements, there is no title, legend, author, north arrow or scale bar.  The streets are sold bold black lines that feel aggressive in nature.    There is no additional information to assist in determining where this is located or why this map was made.  I can not determine the purpose of this map or what information it is trying to convey.

Interestingly, on the spectrum of good to poor maps I could find many more examples of poor maps than I could of good maps.  I speculate that has to do with the source of the maps(internet and provided lab documents).  I hope that there are more individuals out making good maps; informative, clear, concise and aesthetic than this population indicates.  Otherwise my classmates and colleges will have a BIG job making enough good maps to outweigh the bad ones.