How Maps Get Made

It was only a short time ago that the visualization of geographic information system (GIS) data was almost exclusively physical, data was hard to come by, and the audience of a map was a single person or a small group or community. The pervasiveness of web mapping in recent years shows that the general public is getting more accustomed to static and dynamic maps showing more than the route from A to B. In this chapter, you will learn how to tailor your map to your audience, find authoritative data to support what you are trying to convey, and create a work plan to structure your data in an organized way to create the best mapping product.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Knowing your audience
• Setting yourself up for a great map
• The importance of data management
• Finding authoritative datasets
• Outlining the work ahead