Evaluation Synopsis: This map of Easter Island deserves an overall grade of being well-designed. Its intention to give the reader a general layout of Easter Island is a well-executed success. It effectively follows the following map design principles: #1. Graphical excellence in the presentation of data. #2. It displays complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision, and efficiency. #7. It is clear, detailed, and thoroughly labeled as to not distort. It follows all 6 commandments with ease. It appeals to my map aesthetic because it has a historical meaning of showing the various ruins and platforms located there, which touches on my passion for history and learning. It also is colorfully pleasing to me, as in it uses pastel hues that are not loud or distracting. Lastly, it is effective in getting the objective across without being overwhelming. Everything in its place has a purpose and makes sense where it was placed.
Evaluation Synopsis: This map of the Wildlife and Game in the United States gets an overall grade of poorly designed. It is too chaotic breaking many map design principles such as #1. Graphical excellence is the well-designed presentation of interesting data. #2. Graphical excellence with complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision, and efficiency. #3. Graphical excellence to give the viewer the greatest number of ideas in the shortest time with the least ink and the smallest space. It breaks these because you could stare at this map all day and not see the same thing twice or gather the info you seek. The legend is placed all around the image in a haphazard manner forcing the viewer to look back and forth from the legend to the map. It is not clear, precise, or efficient in getting the objective across. The legend does not convey meaning towards the map itself, but rather duplicates information because animals depicted are not solely seen in just one spot of the map. This map broke all 6 commandments when it was made. Three areas of improvement I would address would be to make sense of the animals in the legend along the map neat line as in they could be placed alphabetically. I would also add a clearly visible scale and north arrow at the bottom of the map above the title. Lastly, I would take out any redundancy because there appears to be more animals located on the map than there are in the legend.
Final Comments: This lesson is a good challenge because I had a set of principles and commandments to follow when critiquing, and because the map may not be what I would of chosen it does not mean that I am unable to come up with an evaluation. It forced me to look not only at the objective of the map, but also beyond to see the finer details from an outsider's view. Paying attention to other maps will certainly come in handy when I am developing my own, so I can either do mine similarly or learn from the mistakes of others.
