Final Project: Smartphone Use Across the Globe

My Favorite Maps of the Semester

Best Lab Maps

http://tablermaps.blogspot.com/2013/11/lab-10-north-carolina-bivariate-map.html

I love the neatline and the font used. Both are very original and dynamic

   

http://tommarottaggs310.blogspot.com/2013/11/bivariate-map-of-2012-election.html

This map has great mimetic symbols that are distinct and humorous! The background looks great.

http://ricemaps.blogspot.com/2013/10/lab-7-proportional-symbol-map.html

This map is very crisp looking, and the background is an interesting variation on the gradient effect we have been playing with.

http://kara-cartography.blogspot.com/2013/10/lab-7-graduate-symbol-map-water-use-in.html

I like the proportional symbols used in this map, and their varied opacity to give better readability

http://mapsbyjill.blogspot.com/2013/11/bivariate-map.html

The combination of the background, color scheme, and drop shadow all make this a very aesthetically pleasing and polished map.

     Best Blog Maps

http://www.sweberrr.blogspot.com/2013/11/weekly-blog-post-5-color.html

I love the use of color in this map to draw the viewer's attention to the London Tube, and I think the composition of the map is really interesting.

http://amazemap.blogspot.com/2013/11/just-something-extra.html

The projection of this map is really unique, the design and flow of info is really cool!

http://kciarrocca.blogspot.com/2013/10/isoline-map-example.html

This isoline map is great because it has a large range of classes that successfully use many different colors to show differences

http://weinandmaps.blogspot.com/2013/12/19th-century-ship-voyages-outlining.html

This map is a really cool example of how comprehensive data can speak for itself, because the viewer can make out the continents within the trade routes without any outline of the continents

http://lookatmymaps.blogspot.com/2013/08/topographic-map-of-moon.html

This topographic map of the moon gives really cool imagery to a landscape we don't usually consider

Handy Illustrator Techniques

After a full semester of using Adobe Illustrator, I have come to really appreciate wide range of abilities and tools the program has to offer, and that's only in the limited context of beginner map making!

My favorite tool so far is the scale tool. This is certainly not unfamiliar to most students in our class, but I have found it invaluable. The most helpful application of the scale tool for me was to make my maps the optimal size for posting on my blog. At the beginning of the semester, I was having problems with the size of my map posts; mainly that they were too small to be able to see the details and smaller texts that were easily visible on Illustrator or in printed version. I found that once I was finished with a map, I could use the ctrl+a command to select everything and scale it by right clicking and selecting transform > scale and adjusting the percentage to make it all larger but still proportional, and the exported jpeg that I posted on my blog was nice and large enough to show all the details I worked to perfect.

Another tool that I found useful was the grouping tool.  You can select multiple items by holding shift while clicking them to select. Once they are all selected you right click them and select "group" to group them together. Once items are grouped, you can click on one of them and they will all be selected, and you can move them together as they stay locked in their relative positions to one another. You can also scale them, change color, and do a number of other effects on them while they keep their form. I found this especially helpful for legends that I made and took the time to make sure were perfectly aligned. Once you have achieved the effect you want, or you want to change something within the grouping, you can right click again and select "ungroup" to undo the grouping feature.

Map of Super Typhoon Haiyan

A map of Super Typhoon Haiyan and how it compares to the Philippines and the United States 

Source: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115554/haiyan-isnt-large-united-states

Final Project Progress (Dec 5)

Lab 10: Bivariate Map

Lab 10: Bivariate Map

A bivariate map showing the relationship between graduation rate and poverty, using a choropleth map with two sets of sequential data. 

Example of a Bivariate Map

Example of an Interesting Bivariate Map 

This is a really interesting example of a bivariate map showing Australia's climate using color, as well as other features using symbols. The color scheme is great because it looks earthy and natural, while still having enough contrast to show changes in trends. 

Source: http://www.thecartographicdivision.com/blog.html

Lab 9: Dot Density Map

Lab 9: Dot Density Map

Example of a Dot Density map

Example of a Dot Density Map

This is a cool example of dot density map which shows smartphone use by tracking Tweets and type of smartphone. The dots represent numbers of Tweets, which the color represents the type of smartphone used. 

Source: http://irevolution.net/2013/07/08/map-mobile-phones-egypt/

Example of an Isoline Map

Example of an Isoline map

This map shows the activity of the Arctic ozone hole event in 2000, with isolines indicating its growth.

Source: http://www.atmosp.physics.utoronto.ca/SPARC/News16/16_Canziani.html

Example of Proportional Symbol Map

Example of a Proportional Symbol Map 

This is an interesting proportional symbol style map which has two datasets representing the area of the location represented and the population density of that city. The symbols are graduated according to the population size.

Source: http://wiki.cns.iu.edu/display/CISHELL/Proportional+Symbol+Map

Final Project Proposal

Title: Smartphones, A worldwide phenomenon

Description: Smartphones are used worldwide, and by a wide range of ages and societies. As an avid user of my smartphone, I am curious to know the habits of other people around the world. For my final project, I would like to do a world map of smartphone users, and I would like to use a proportional symbol technique. I would like the symbol to have two aspects, size and color/fill, to indicate the volume of users for each country, and the most widely used brand/design/type in that area.

Audience: Current smartphone users, people who don't use smartphones but are considering trying it, advertisers who want to better utilize social media/apps, business owners who want to better utilize social media/apps, People who are developing new software, applications, and new sites.

Technique: Proportional symbols and color aspects

Scope: Worldwide, major cities or regions

Data Specs: I am having trouble narrowing down a source for my data, but I know I will need the statistics for number of users in each country and of which social media tools/sites. I found a good source which gives info about providers, brands, and other smartphone/mobile phone statistics for major world regions

http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats/a#subscribers

http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats

Basemap: I will need a basemap of the entire world

Production steps:
The first step will be to locate data and arrange it according to most users per country
The second step will be selecting a symbol then creating proportional symbols for each country
The third step will be strategically placing these symbols so that they accurately represent the area but allow maximum readability

Possible challenges: Finding good data has already proved challenging. It is also possible that my scope is too large, and maybe I could focus on a smaller area if it becomes too overwhelming. An issue I encountered with my proportional symbol map in our previous lab was that the data range was too high, making the smallest symbol almost impossible to see, and the largest symbol bigger than the basemap. I also want to make sure I'm accurately representing worldwide statistics, I suppose the data by region might be slightly skewed or arbitrary.

Here are a few inspiration maps:

Source: http://www.techinasia.com/10-gorgeous-social-media-infographics/

Lab 8: Isoline Map

Lab 8: Isoline Map

Lab 7: Symbols Map

This lab was originally a proportional symbols map, but due the extremely large range of values for my data, I ended using a graduated symbols map, with a different color for negative values.

Example of an Interesting Color Map

This map, which relates education level to income, is a very interesting example of color. It layers three different monochromatic maps of different information in order to show how they relate. It is an interesting concept, but it does have some confusing areas, where one can't tell which colors are mixing and how dark or light they originally were.

source (with zoom abilities):
http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1101/census-data/flat.html

Lab 6: Color Choropleth Map

Lab 6: Color Choropleth Map

When comparing this online post of my color map with the printed version, there are noticeable changes in the colors. The background in my post is darker and more prominent than in the printed version, where it is much lighter and less distracting. For the values, the second to lightest green (.00031-.00060%) is the most dramatic change, it looks slightly darker online than on paper. The lightest value and darker values look the least changed. 

Lab 5: Grayscale Choropleth Maps

Lab 5: Grayscale Choropleth Maps 

For my two versions I did a natural-breaks map and an equal-interval map.  There is a significant difference between the two. The natural breaks map seems to have a more even distribution between the five classifications, while the equal interval map has a high concentration in two of the classifications, and only a few in the others. The natural breaks map looks better aesthetically to me, but it might have misleading information. The even interval might be better, because it gives a more realistic view of the information, which is that many states have about the same ratio of exotic animal incidents. 

Example of a Choropleth Map

An example of a Choropleth Map:

HIV Epidemic among Young Thai Men, 1991–2000

Figure 2. Choropleth maps of HIV prevalence in four classes of young men at time of entry into the Royal Thai Army, Thailan, 1991-2000. Location determined by residence during the previous 2 years. Prevalence is stratified by color and localized to district or group of districts so that calculations are based on > 20 men

Kalyanee Torugsa*, Scott Anderson†, Nucharee Thongsen*, Narongrid Sirisopana*, Achara Jugsudee‡, Pitak Junlananto‡, Sorachai Nitayaphan*, Suebpong Sangkharomya*, and Arthur E. Brown* 

Author affiliations: *Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Bangkok, Thailand; †State University of New York at Cortland, Cortland, New York, USA; ‡Army Institute of Pathology, Bangkok, Thailand

Source: http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/9/7/02-0653-f2.htm

Lab 4: Boundaries

Lab 4:  Boundaries

Lab 3: Typography

Lab 3: Typography

Typography & Design

This map, a Technology "Game of Thrones" map, is a great example of beautiful typography and design. The text is strategically placed so it is clear what each label is attached to. The words and phrases form to fit the shapes of what they label, and the font is cleverly selected to suit the medieval theme. The subtle changes in color are a nice touch, because they give enough contrast with their respective backgrounds to make them easy to read. 

Source: http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2012/12/09/technology-game-of-thrones-map/

This typographic map of Washington, D.C. is another really interesting example of the use of type to enhance the design of a map. The text is shaped and repeated to form the actual space and shape of the object it is labeling. 

Source: http://store.axismaps.com/product/typographic-map-washington-dc

Lab 2: Mollweide Graticule

Map Projections

Projections at identical scale with maximum angular deformation 

values represented by colors

Map in sinusoidal (Sanson-Flamsteed) projection: equal-area, but only the Equator and central meridian are free of angular deformation

Polyhedral maps are a particular case of interruption. On an unfolded Waterman polyhedron, the gnomonic projection centered on faces is azimuthal, therefore the deformation pattern is radically symmetric. 

Source: http://www.progonos.com/furuti/MapProj/Dither/CartProp/DefPatA/defPatA.html 

Lab 1: Illustration of Sphere, Geoid, Ellipsoid, and Natural Surface

Lab 1: Illustration of Sphere, Geoid, Ellipsoid, and Natural Surface

Interesting (Perspective-Changing) Maps

Black Rock City over the Golden Gate Bridge 

This map shows "Black Rock City," the camping city that is set up annually for Burning Man Festival, super-imposed over the Golden Gate Bridge. It gives an interesting perspective on how large the festival grounds actually are.

Source: http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/20-maps-that-will-change-the-way-you-see-the-world/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=promo

More info about Black Rock City: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/about_burningman/brc_growth.html


                                                The Pyramids of Giza over Angkor Wat

This map shows an aerial view of The Pyramids of Giza super-imposed over Angkor Wat in Cambodia. People usually think of the Pyramids as being some of the most massive structures on earth, but they are dwarfed by Angkor Wat, which could fit all the pyramids and the sphinx, as well as Taj Mahal and its gardens!

Source: http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/20-maps-that-will-change-the-way-you-see-the-world/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=promo

More info about Angkor Wat http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668