The reason I chose to draw my map where I did was because it was a commute I do at home all the time. The map starts at my house and goes to Stop and Shop which is only a few minutes away. Something that the person following this map should note is that the drive is fairly simple and that as long as they do exactly what the map says, then they will get there with no problem at all. What I was trying to achieve in this map was the most effective and efficient way to get to the grocery store for someone that had never been to m house before. I also noted other locations such as gas stations and a starbucks in case they needed anything else while they followed the map. The biggest problem that I encountered while making this map was trying to figure out what other things were in the area of the map I drew. For example noting and finding out where the lakes and bodies of water are was a bit of a challenge, but I think I captured them perfectly. My AHA moment was when I figured out that the starbucks was within the four corners of the map and that I could include it. Adding as many hotspots as I could was my main goal and I think I achieved getting everything within range. One thing I learned through making connections in class and in the reading was how to make the road lengths as accurate as possible. The sizes of the buildings may be a little exaggerated in some cases to make the map easier to see,but I think it still works just as great if not better. What I would have done differently if I had more time and resources would have been to draw some of the trees in more detail and use more colors to capture the areas on the map. Some of the colors I used in this were drawn to be the same way that the actual thing is colored, for example for all of the trees I used the color green and for the bodies of water I used the color blue. I also drew a red line going from one point to the other to make it as clear as possible for the person using it to know where they are going. I marked trails through the woods to give more detail to the map. I also made the starting points both very colorful to indicate that they were what you were meant to start at, and the ending point is bright and in large writing so that people will know where to go. Overall I really enjoyed this assignment because it helped me realize all of the things I didn’t really notice when I actually did the drive myself. I also thought it was very fun drawing and mapping it out because it was something I have never really done before this class.
Matt Fernandes - Blog 