Friday, March 31, 2017

GIS 3015 – Cartographic Skills - Student Spotlight


Module 9: Flowline Mapping


Module 9 required students to undertake Flow Line Mapping. Flow maps utilize lines of varying width to depict the movement of phenomena between geographic locations. Students utilized Adobe Illustrator to create a distributive flow map to illustrate global immigration figures into the United States. Lab materials provided base maps produced in ArcMap, and left students with the task of rearranging continents and creating proportional flow lines and corresponding legends in accordance with design principles.

The spotlight this week goes to Rachel Gwin! Rachel’s flow line map stood out for its clear presentation of data. Her systematic map organization and inclusion of supplemental information information is the map’s selling point. Flow lines and U.S. immigration data stand out above all other map elements. The map’s design demonstrates a competency with Adobe Illustrator--the flow line styling and placement is subtle yet effective, the corresponding line and continental colors facilitates easy map interpretation. The choropleth legend has contiguous legend swatches in keeping with textbook choropleth legend design. The horizontal legend orientation is ideal for legend placement within available map space. The map elements are balanced throughout the page, with all objects being sized appropriately for easy viewing. Map information provides correct data sources, projection as well as other helpful information to aid in correct map interpretation. See Rachel's blog post for more details about this assignment. Excellent work Rachel!!


Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Student and Professional GIS Competitions

The GIS industry is full of student and professional competition opportunities. Here are a few upcoming opportunities that we would like to share:
If you aren't sold on participating, here are just a few reasons why you should at least think about it.



If you know of another GIS competition, please email gisonline@uwf.edu with details so was can feature it on our blog and Facebook pages.


Friday, March 3, 2017

GIS6005- Communicating GIS - Student Spotlight

Module 3: Typography

Communicating GIS is a course within our M.S. in Geographic Information Science  Administration (GIS) degree plan. This course begins with the basic theory of graphic design, cartography, and map production and distribution. Students then learn to communicate specific types of spatial and analytical information through maps, written and oral explanations, graphs, tables, charts, and interactive web mapping applications. 

During week 3 in GIS 6005- Communicating GIS, students learned about using effective type as part of effective map design. Well-designed and implemented type is a very important component of the professional appearance and clarity of maps. Therefore, a review of the basics of typography, as well as some widely used approaches to use type effectively to enhance maps was covered in this module.  The lab for the module had students experiment with different typographic styles and apply type choices within overall map design. 


We would like to specifically recognize Edward Walther for excellent typography work on the maps produced for module 3. We should also mention that in week 4 of Communicating GIS Edward led a discussion on the usage of color in Cartography, where he very effectively discussed the differences in categorially data types and color scheme usage within cartography.  

Edward has been a pleasure to have in the class.  Edward works as a project manager for the South Florida Water Management District specializing in water quality. Mr. Walther's previous work experience in Delaware had him developing suitability tools using GIS to explore alternatives for waste water. His education and experience has served him well in Communicating GIS this semester. In the final deliverable of the lab, students brought together the labeling of the cities, states and rivers of Mexico. Edward’s map provides a great example of effective typography for a variety of different map features and strong overall map presentation. 

Great work Edward!