Thursday, October 2, 2014

Notes on Lab 5: Gray Choropleth maps

-Although the writeup points you to the Census site for data, I will allow you to find data from ANY source provided it is quality data. It *must* be the correct style of data (no total counts!).

-One significant figure it typically enough detail in your legend.
-Examine the decimal level (if you have it) when selecting the natural breaks. Your best breaks may be between 2.3 and 2.9 instead of between 2 and 3.
-For your non-Natural Breaks map, equal interval and quantiles are very easy. Your pick!
-Grayscale. No color!

Tues/Thurs lab: I forgot to talk about DC. For cultural data, the District is often a particularly interesting value (think homicides, education, etc) and so there is a desire to include it on the map. The challenge lies in the size -- it is essentially one pixel. Just not visible. In order to read the value we have to create an inset off to the side. My suggestion is to make a small box and fill it with the appropriate tint. Add a DC label near the box. Perhaps a line pointing to DC. Then your map reader will be able to see the value for the District.

BUT, you do not have to include DC. This lab is the 50 states. You may elect to just skip the District. Your choice. (if you do skip DC, make sure your data classes skip the value as well!)

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