Google Spreadsheet Link, Web App Link
Decisions made in process
During this dh mapping project, some decisions I made to improve my user experience included a stylistic choice to not use the default “halo” text feature for building labels because it made them hard to see. Also, I decided to make my building footprints slightly transparent in order to expose the 1951 aerial photo of the campus I used as my basemap that had a different landscape than my own with the classes I currently attend. With the layer’s transparency, it is cool to directly compare what buildings were there over 70 years ago and which ones are new additions. Burton Hall existed at Carleton in 1951 while the Weitz (a high school before) and Recreation Center did not. To explore symbology, I determined dot coordinate size by frequency I visit each building which led to more comparisons about where I spend my time the most and what pathways I use to get to each place more than others.
Potential of web mapping for DH work in general
As for the potential of web mapping for DH work in general, I can imagine that choosing specific topics to explore through space and time can create compelling arguments and reveal truths that would be harder to discern through traditional humanistic inquiry and plain writing. I appreciate how a picture can be worth a million words and can provide much more accessible information for my comprehension than dense text. Maps are not neutral so I am curious as to how digital humanists will continue to use them to strengthen their arguments.
Capabilities of ArcGIS online platform specifically
This project was my first time using ArcGIS. From this brief experience, I see potential in the user-friendly platform set up as well as the various dynamic tools it offers, lots of options for ambitious digital humanists to take advantage of.
2 thoughts on “Web Mapping 101: Create your own campus map”
Leave a Reply to Esther Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Hi Sylvie, this is a great map! I like how you tweaked the features such as transparency and text font to visualize the map better. I agree that it is interesting to see the difference between now and Carleton over 70 years ago. Like your visualization, I think that a picture can sometimes contain more information than merely text.
I completely agree about your stance on a picture being more powerful than a bunch of dense text. I think that often times by merely seeing a image you can immediately get a bunch more information than if it was just written as a paragraph.