02.03.10 Deliverable #3

With the color schemes I chose, I could not tell the difference between the stretched and classified symbology methods on the actual maps as I was working in ArcMap. Accessing the properties box did show me that the stretched method is based on standard deviation while the classified method breaks the data into classes based on natural breaks. Once I posted the maps side by side, I was able to see differences. On the maps with the green to white color plate, the classified map shows more detail as I was able to manipulate the number of classes to further detail changes in elevation at the upper levels. Once I changed the color scheme to one that used multiple hues instead of levels of saturation, the stretched symbology method presented details better.

02.03.10 Deliverable #2

I had trouble with the annotation conversion for the city labels in this exercise. I think the TS lagtime might have played a role since I ended up with two or three different labels for each city. Again I saved, saved, saved so starting over was not as frustrating as in the last exercise.

Since we were not relating any other spatial information that required a change in my world countries layer color, I kept the brown from Exercise #1. Another change I made is to the color that represent railroads. My old eyes could not see those tiny tracks in the default symbol so I changed the color to fire red and moved the layer to below highways so it would not overwhelm the map.

What do you think?

02.03.10 Deliverable #1

No real problems with this except inexperience with the software. I wish ArcMap had an undo feature similar to that of MS Office products. One wrong click and I am starting all over. I also learned the importance of save, save, save.

I selected the yellow, orange, red color scheme to represent population data because the data is quantitative and the hue progression reflects the increase in population amounts.

Always a perfectionist, I also wish my city labels were cleaner and more legible. I wonder if there is a standard for placement of legend, scale and pointer? Should they be placed inside the map frame or should I re-size the map so these items are displayed along the borders?