Tristan H's GIS Blog

Module 3: Terrain Visualization For this map, I focused on clear visual hierarchy and readability so the landcover patterns in Yellowstone were easy to interpret at a glance. I used  a muted, natural color palette dominated by greens and tans to reflect real-world vegetation types while reserving bright blue for water so lakes immediately stand out. Terrain shading was kept subtle so it adds depth without overpowering the landcover classes. Typography was simple and clean, with a bold, readable title to establish context and smaller, consistent fonts for the legend and map elements. The legend was organized logically and placed with enough white space to avoid clutter, helping the map feel balanced and professional while still being accessible to a general audience.  

     Area of interest: Oregon Coordinate System: NAD 1983 Oregon Statewide Lambert (Meters) I chose this projection as it was designed to keep the entire state within one unit. State Plane projections are high accuracy but Oregon lies within multiple zones, UTM also does not cover the entire state within one zone. The statewide Lambert projection avoids both issues while minimizing distortion  

  Making a Busy Map Readable: Labeling Mexico’s Geography For Parts 4 and 5 of this assignment, the goal was to move beyond simply displaying data and focus on how map design choices affect readability , especially as more features and labels are added. The project started with a simple map of Mexico and its major rivers, then expanded to include states and cities, which made labeling strategy much more important. Part 4: Starting Simple In Part 4, the map focused on Mexico’s national boundary and major rivers. Rivers were symbolized using a standard blue line style and labeled dynamically so the text followed the curves of the rivers. Using italic text and halos helped keep river names readable against different background colors. Because the map was relatively simple at this stage, river labels were allowed to repeat along long features and remain visually prominent. Part 5: Adding More Without Adding Clutter Part 5 made the map more complex by adding states and cities. To p...