Freehand Map

Figure 9. The original Lab 2 Macromedia Freehand map depicting Boulder County in Colorado.

Figure 10. The revised Lab 2 Macromedia Freehand map depicting Boulder County in Colorado.

For the map revision, the visual hierarchy scheme was applied to correct deficiencies in the original map layout. To shift focus away from certain map items, the north arrow was made less prominent and smaller text was used for the title and credits. To increase the prominence of specific map items, the legend was rearranged vertically with linear features listed first and area features listed second. In addition, a light gray was added to the map foreground to create a clear division between the foreground and background. Finally, the legend, credits, north arrow, and written scale were rearranged to fill “white space” and create a “balanced” map.

Non-hierarchical items were also modified during the map revision. First, a frame line and a neatline were added to “clean up” the map’s appearance. Finally, the date and data source were added to the credits.