Link to the map: https://arcg.is/HL9fj3
Link to web app: https://carleton.maps.arcgis.com/apps/instant/sidebar/index.html?appid=b927e5ddd88c470b9376ee5c3cbd5304
Link to CSV spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/17G5uytvOtMHNYzPDvuRSbWxQRMNHX4BZfXyFqYivNJ0/edit?usp=sharing
My Reflection
While creating my map, I chose a newspaper-style basemap because it avoids excessive detail and keeps the focus on the campus buildings I visit most often. Since my goal is to show the relative locations of these buildings rather than provide detailed navigation, a simpler basemap makes the map easier to understand. I also chose heat map symbols to represent how frequently I visit each building. The variation in color intensity makes these patterns easy to identify, while the red dots contrast clearly with the blue sketch around the buildings.
By combining geographic information with personal experiences, a map can tell a story that would be difficult to communicate through text alone. More broadly, web mapping can help researchers explore historical changes in places, visualize cultural patterns, and connect different types of historical data to geographic locations.
ArcGIS Online is particularly useful because it provides accessible tools for creating interactive maps without requiring extensive programming knowledge. Its variety of basemaps, symbols, and visualization options allows users to customize maps for different purposes. Overall, this project showed me that mapping is not just about displaying locations. It is also a way to organize information and communicate meaningful relationships between people and places.
Hi Rigley,
I totally agree with your thoughts on combining both geographical information and personal experience. I think that we usually don’t imagine that maps can reflect how people interact with each other, but this is an essential problem that maps can help us solve. I also think it is really important for us to realize that sharing our maps with other people may help the community as a whole. Again, I really enjoyed your post and am glad to hear from someone who has a similar perspective.
Hey Rigley, I agree with your stance on personal experience being a great tool to create maps. In the case of maps being public use, information could be generalized to certain audiences or data based on things like visitors, and using a heatmap like you did is a great way to show that. I also think the decision to choose a map that isn’t cluttered to ensure visibility and clarity is a nice touch.