Latest Contributions by HeatherSmith

I recently finished writing a 5-part tutorial series all about web cartography. Cartographic creations with web maps will teach you how to make professional quality web maps and apps with Map Viewer and ArcGIS StoryMaps. The video below shows what you will make and learn. This tutorial series serves as a companion peice to Cartographic creations in ArcGIS Pro, and both are key content in the Introduction to Cartography course. It teaches skills related to symbology, data management, projections, basemaps, pop-ups, labeling, visual hierarchy, data attribution, blend modes, effects, and layout design.   ... View more

Choosing colors might be the hardest part of mapmaking. At least I find it challenging. A trick I often use to make this part of cartography easier is to choose similar colors to represent similar things and different colors to represent different things. People naturally assume that things that look similar are similar, and you can use this assumption to your advantage to make a more intuitive map. I thought I’d make a video about this technique, but I had too many examples of how helpful it can be, so I ended up with three videos instead! In them, I use both ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online to demonstrate the power of color matching in maps. All of the data in these videos is from Halifax Open Data: https://catalogue-hrm.opendata.arcgis.com Follow along with the map: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=1d64e0d983dc4861b3276c9602dab43c To watch the video with subtitles, visit https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_gvb3mgan  Follow along with the map: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=4d49bc7574ae4b62bf405e2d44a007df To watch the video with subtitles, visit https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_5b5y6zws  Follow along with the map in ArcGIS Online: https://www.maps.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=c8853977fdc3407f8cee3ff3fbd64ecc Follow along with the map in ArcGIS Pro: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=616b2d3b71df44e7981a48e7b885244e To watch the vidoe with subtitles, visit https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_zhzrsu8a Learn more You can find more map-making skills on the Quick Cartography playlist, and on the Introduction to Cartography site. ... View more

Colors are never neutral. They affect how people think and feel about your map. As a cartographer, you should be aware of the connotations and associations carried by the colors you use. They can be powerful tools to help you communicate more clearly. But if you ignore them, they can just as easily sabotage your map’s message. The two videos below share examples of color choices based on associations and connotations. The examples given are in ArcGIS Pro, but this advice is relevant to any mapping situation.  (Watch the video with subtitles here: https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_pbjpq2zm)  (Watch the video with subtitles here: https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_j4e7qnwn)   Takeaways: If there’s a color that’s normally associated with your subject, you should probably use it in your map. What colors will your audience expect to see on this map? Try those first. Color connotations and associations can be overpowered by other signals in your map. Color connotations vary (sometimes dramatically) between cultures. Further learning: Emily Meriam is a pro at exploiting color connotations and associations. You can learn more about how she does it in the following articles: Creating a meaningful temperature palette and Sunset Colormapping. You can find more videos like these in the Quick Cartography playlist. Data sources: The data in these videos comes from the following sources: U.S. Heart Disease Mortality Rates, 2014-2016, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Interactive Atlas of Heart Disease and Stroke. https://nccd.cdc.gov/DHDSPAtlas. Accessed on May 2024 and used with permission USA Cropland, USDA NASS National Hydrography Dataset Plus Version 2.1, USGS, Esri USA Parks, Esri, TomTom USA Census Urban Areas, Esri, US Census Bureau Surface Air Temperature (Average Annual), Generated using Copernicus Climate Change Service information [2020] Presidential Election 2020 USA - County, MIT Election Data and Science Lab, 2018, "County Presidential Election Returns 2000-2020", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/VOQCHQ, Harvard Dataverse, V11, UNF:6:HaZ8GWG8D2abLleXN3uEig== [fileUNF] ACS Race and Hispanic Origin Variables - Boundaries, U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 2018-2022 5-year estimates, Table(s) B03002 ... View more

In map design, the choice of color scheme is dependent on the basemap. If you have a light basemap, most people will interpret dark colors to mean “more” and light colors to mean “less”. If you have a dark basemap, the opposite is true. The video below shows examples of designing with light and dark color schemes in ArcGIS Online and ArcGIS Pro. (Watch the video with subtitles here: https://mediaspace.esri.com/media/t/1_zvd6e57g) Takeaways: If you’re using a light basemap, dark colors will stand out more and so appear to mean “more”. If you’re using a dark basemap, light colors will stand out more and so appear to mean “more”. You can flip color schemes to control which end equates to more and which equates to less. The subject of your map can sometimes override these rules. In ArcGIS Online, you can search for color schemes designed specifically for light or dark basemaps. If you’re struggling to find the right color scheme, try changing the basemap. Colors all look different against different backgrounds. There are a lot of other considerations that go into designing choropleth maps. You can learn about some of them in this related video: Configure a choropleth map. You can follow along with the map in ArcGIS Online or in ArcGIS Pro. You can find the data at Halifax Open Data.  You can find more videos like this one on the Quick Cartography playlist. ... View more

There are a lot of options for configuring choropleth maps. It’s tempting to just stick with the defaults and hope for the best. But a little bit of experimentation with these options can really improve your map. So long as you have a clear sense of what your map’s goal is, you can make smart choices and great maps. In the following video, I share five examples of choropleth maps made with a single dataset. It includes tips and techniques for designing maps with the Counts and Amounts (color) style in ArcGIS Map Viewer.  Learn how to adjust a histogram, choose a color scheme, classify data, and, perhaps most importantly, assess how well your symbology works. Watch the video Click the image to watch the video. You can follow along with this video with the Maximum Building Height web map. The data used in the map and video is from Halifax Open Data. If you liked this video, check out the others in the Quick Cartography video series: ... View more

A map's legend is not just a list of all its layers. It’s an important key to help people understand and interpret the map. You don’t need to be a fancy designer to make an excellent legend. Often, all that’s needed is a bit of tidying: renaming, reordering, and removing items. Below are three short videos that can help you tidy up your map legends. Improve layer names in a map Good cartography is not just about colors and symbols, it’s also about the words on your map. The symbols you chose may be excellent, but if the layer names describing them aren’t clear, the symbols won’t work. This video shares an example in ArcGIS Online of how to create clear and concise layer names. Improve a map legend One of the easiest ways to improve a map is to improve its legend. This video shares an example of creating a clear legend in ArcGIS Online. Remove layers from a legend Not every layer on your map needs to be featured in the legend. This video shares examples in ArcGIS Map Viewer and ArcGIS Pro. It demonstrates four times when a layer can be removed from a legend. If you want to follow along with the maps shown in these videos, you can find them here: Improve layer names in a map Improve a map legend Transit  Street lights Public Green Space Special Areas Data sources: Halifax Open Data Government of Canada; Natural Resources Canada; Earth Sciences Sector; Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation: National Topographic Data Base (NTDB)and CanVec John Nelson, Esri ... View more

When people look at your map, what do you want them to notice first? Visual hierarchy is a design technique that lets people know which things on your map are important. Which of the three maps below is best? That depends on which layer is the most important to the map’s purpose. Each one uses visual hierarchy to emphasize one layer over the others. You probably already use visual hierarchy without realizing it: for example, if you made some map features a bright red color so they would stand out, or if you chose a gray basemap so it wouldn’t distract from your thematic data. However, the more you know about visual hierarchy, the easier it is to make effective and good looking maps. Below are three short videos I made about visual hierarchy. In these videos I describe some of the more common visual variable principles, and share some techniques for how to use them in your maps. If you want to follow along with the web maps shown in these videos, you can find them here: Visual hierarchy for maps Improve visual hierarchy with color Improve visual hierarchy with detail The data used in these videos is from Halifax Open Data. ... View more