Lab #1: Introduction

Shayda Haghgoo Professor Shin
Geography 167

Good Map Bad Map

The first map shown in this blog is an example of a good map. Retrieved from an informational website (comparable in concept with Wikipedia) called Theodora.com, this map represents the various climate regions of the world. It is a good map because it properly acknowledges the weather conditions prevailing in an area even if they comprise a proportionally small region of the map. To elaborate, California possesses a Mediterranean climate that can be observed as to only comprise a small sliver of the western region of North America. The map does not make the common mistake of applying the orange color to signify California as having an arid or desert climate. Furthermore, the legend itself is very efficient in applying appropriate colors that can be easily distinguished from one another. This is important because maps and map colors risk the possibility of confusing the audience and thus successfully failing to convey the intended message.

The next map is an example of a bad map surprisingly created by social scientists from Columbia University. The map attempts to show the density of Starbucks and Wal-mart per capita. However, the only thing that can differentiate these densities are different shades of grey. Someone once said that the human eye can not differentiate more tan six shades of grey at one time. This map in particular shows at least 6 shades that are arguably difficult to distinguish. The difficulty can be understood when comparing the shade of California with the surrounding states in either the Starbucks or the Wal-mart map. Furthermore, the map lacks a frame, legend, title, and scale. Some of these aspects are not entirely necessary but because they are not present in this map it looks like two floating United States with no proper explanation of the different shades of grey.