Boston Better Map

A crucial part of planning the layout of your map is visual hierarchy, where the eyes are drawn first depending upon the importance of the feature. Each feature should be represented by an aspect of design that makes the map easier to understand. In other words, each aspect of the map will represent its place in the visual hierarchy based on its design. It is important to keep in mind how people will read things directionally, from left to right, top to bottom, or in a Z shape when dealing with sidenotes. When designing a map, it is important to keep in mind what the purpose of the map is or what information it is supposed to convey. Some elements should stand out depending upon how important the information is and others should be subtle and fit into the lower visual hierarchy. 

The figure-ground concept was what I focused on most when creating my map for Boston. Figures are what should stand out in the map and ground represents what goes on in the back. In the case of my Boston map, the primary focus should be the contrast of neighborhoods depending upon the price per night charged by the AirBnB. It is important to choose a color that will stand out against the neutral colors of the rest of the state and bay so I chose orange. The warm tone creates a clear outline of the city against neutral tones in a subtle way. I chose not to make the map transparent this time because I did want a clear contrast on my map. I changed the outline color to white and increased the transparency to 50%. I did not want to add any more harsh borders and was able to keep the outline of each neighborhood clear and visible. The last thing that I did was try to assess a good visual hierarchy. I was unsure of whether to add the price of each neighborhood on the map or the name of the neighborhood itself. I had to keep in mind that overcrowding can make a map harder to understand. The legend on the bottom left hand corner clearly lays out the contrast between the price of each neighborhood as do the colors of the map itself. So, I chose to use the name of each neighborhood as opposed to price. I chose a simple font and decreased the size down to 7 because although the name of the neighborhood is important, the body of the city itself is supposed to be the first thing the eye is drawn towards. However, I did want the name of the neighborhood to stand out next in the visual hierarchy despite the small font, so I changed it to blue with a white outline. 

For the dot density map, I somewhat took the same approach. Because the map is so busy with the dots, I tried to make the map look as clean as possible. I selected the filter for the best colors to use against a lighter background and red seemed to fit the best. I changed the dot size to .05 so that some areas were not mistaken as just as expensive as others. I also changed the background of the city map to white so that the dots were the main focus. Because the background was a bit lighter against neutral backgrounds, I chose to use a drop shadow for this map. This feature makes it appear as though a certain portion of the map (that should be focused on) is elevating from the screen. Lastly, I once again added the name of the neighborhood but in a bit smaller font this time. Although the neighborhood is important, the focus of this map is supposed to be how widely distributed the dots are. I do think it is important to have the neighborhoods labeled though and if need be the names are much more visible if the map is zoomed into.