Latest Contributions by HeatherSmith

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