When people look at your map, what do you want them to notice first? In order to make an effective map, that's something you need to decide. Hi, I'm Heather, and I'm a cartographer. Today, I'm working in ArcGIS Online. In this map, I want people to notice this layer first. It's the most important thing in this map according to the goals of the project. The second most important thing is this layer. After that, it's the buildings. The least important thing, although it's still important, is the basemap. Now that I've established a clear hierarchy for my layers, I need to make sure that the visual hierarchy matches. Visual hierarchy is a design technique that lets people know which information is the most important. Here's a non-map example: Maybe you wrote a report when you were in school that looked something like this, and then you made it look a little bit better by adding some formatting. Now it's clear which words are the most important, and it

looks a lot more inviting to read, don't you think? Well, the same thing goes for maps. Visual hierarchy just means that some things on the map will attract more attention than others. We like to say that they'll pop. To make something pop, give it a strong contrast with the background. To make something recede, give it a low contrast with the background. I like to start by assessing the current visual hierarchy of my map. What do you notice first? It's probably the large brown polygons, and that's for two reasons. One, they're large, and large things tend to attract attention. Two, they're dark and the background is light. Dark things have a high contrast with light backgrounds, so they also attract a lot of attention. I can't make these polygons any smaller, but I can make them lighter, for example by increasing the transparency. Now they still attract more attention than the base map, because they still have a bit of color,

and they're more noticeable than the buildings because they're so large, but overall, they're not very noticeable. Now, the first thing you notice is probably the Heritage Conservation Districts layer, which is what I want. They're not very dark, but they're large, and they have really bright, saturated colors. Highly saturated colors attract a lot of attention. This is why safety vests and highlighters are fluorescent orange and yellow. We use these colors for things we want to stand out, to pop, to be noticed. So, the colors are working great for me right now, but I do want to take it further. I'm going to try making the outlines darker. I'll make them black. Black will increase the contrast between the polygons and the pale base map. The outlines also make the polygons appear more detailed than the other features, and detail, like contrast, like saturated colors, attracts attention. By this point, I've mentioned several properties that make things pop, including high contrast with the background,

highly saturated colors, detailed shapes, and large shapes. This isn't a complete list, and you don't need to memorize it. The trick is to understand your map's goal, then try lots of different things. And with each thing you try, ask yourself, did that make the map better or worse? For example, I'm going to add a drop shadow just to experiment. These things are always worth a try. Does it make the map better or worse? I think it's better. The shapes now look like they're physically popping off the map. That's great visual hierarchy. Now, sometimes I add a drop shadow to a map, and it makes it worse. The point with any symbology option is to try it and get used to asking yourself, better or worse. So I now have a map where the visual hierarchy is clear and intentional. The first thing anyone is going to notice when they look at this map is the first thing I want them to notice.

Visual Hierarchy For Maps | Quick Cartography in ArcGIS

Visual Hierarchy For Maps | Quick Cartography in ArcGIS