Final Project

Bivariate Map of the 2012 Election

Super Typhoon Haiyan

This is a map comparing the size of the super typhoon Haiyan to the United States. There have been pictures of the aftermath showing the extent of the damage that was caused, but what really puts perspective of the scope of this catastrophe is the enormous size of the storm.

Bivariate Map

This is a bivariate map comparing household vacancies to population densities. The proportional symbol and the choropleth data sets work together nicely. The presence of the circles does not mask the values in the counties, which allows for easy interpretation of the values.

Dot Density Map

Final Project

                The project I would like to do for the final is a choropleth map of the number of households for each county in the United States. My project will be to improve upon a map done by the U.S. Census Bureau map from 2007-2011 data and add some charts to the map. The data for this graphic was good, but the colors and the layout of the map were not well put together.

                The overall plans I have so far are to improve the map visually and to add some extra information and pictures to make it more interesting. This map was included in a report that relied on the text to explain what the visuals were showing. One of my ideas is to include the text in the map so that the audience only needs to look in one location to find the information. This material could have just as easily been placed in the map, so I will work on increasing the content in the graphic while making it look neat.

                Much of the work that needs to be done on this map is to improve it visually, which will take time due to the amount of counties in the U.S. So a base map of the all of the U.S. states and counties will help to distinguish where all of the data needs to go in the project. The small counties pose a difficult task for finding a color scheme that will work and that will also not blur out the smaller areas.

                The U.S. Census Bureau made the map to show the distribution of the data and there are some visual errors that they made in creating the map. The color scheme could be better, because the jump to the dark purple overpowers the other colors. The other problem with the color that they used a white-blue color as the lowest variable, this gives off the impression that there is no information for those counties. The county and state lines are too prominent and cover up the colors in places along the eastern shore of the states. Alaska and Hawaii are stuck in the corners of the map and seem to be almost ignorable. The title could be changed up to use up the extra space in the map, and the same could be said for the legend as well.

                Every once in a while these maps get published in magazines and newspapers and they do not look as good as they could be.The maps generated yearly by the Census Bureau are usually on the plain side because they make them all the time. It is understandable that the map is not as visually appealing since the important part is the data. The target audience I will be focussing on are people who read magazines and newspapers, who would need better visual guides to understand what the data is showing. The Census Bureau collects great data so the improving the little details will make this a more complete map.

Census Bureau Map:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/

http://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/acsbr11-23.pdf

Dot Density Map

This is a map of the distribution of races in Philadelphia by block. The closer to the center of the city, the more compact the dots get. The dots fill out the entire area square and look like a single unit. The color scheme works well since the background is white and the borders are a light grey color.