I was honored to have the opportunity to collaborate with CEEDS as a student associate for the SAL in spring 2024 to update the MacLeish kiosk Trail Map. For those who have visited MacLeish before, you may recall the simple black-and-white map that portrayed the trails and arts afield sites, along with the reservoir and streams in blue. Though the map did achieve its original goal – to convey the locations of the trails at the MacLeish Field Station – several people agreed that it was time for an update. So, I gladly rose to the challenge.
I had a few overall goals that guided my design choices when updating the MacLeish map. First, the map should be accessible to people with color vision deficiencies. Second, the map should educate new and returning users. And third, though this may sound cliché, the map should look good and engage its audience. For those who may not have visited MacLeish before or paid attention to the old map, here’s a picture of it below:
Trail MFS map Nov2019
I drew inspiration from a few different places: U.S. national park trail maps and maps done by Smith students. Because the U.S. national parks receive so many visitors from all over the world with diverse backgrounds, they need to be accessible to cater to the needs of their diverse visitors. I was also inspired and impressed by the work that Smithes had done. Another important consideration I kept at the forefront of my mind throughout this process was my collaborators in CEEDS (Becca and Paul), who had some requirements for this map. They wanted a map that clearly depicts the MacLeish trails and only displays sites of interest to the public – such as the arts afield sites and campsites.
Reyes, Waleska - Lab 5
I began creating an updated version of the MacLeish map with a simple but elegant base so the trails and arts afield sites would stand out. I did not use one of the default basemap provided by ArcGIS Pro because the base maps were too detailed or colorful, and would prevent the user from seeing the trails clearly. Instead, I adjusted some of the layers that depict MacLeish’s landscape. This included the boundary of the field station, the forest, streams, reservoir, vernal pool, stonewalls, and contour lines. As an example, the contour lines are thin and light grey, intended to be visible but not stand out. I chose a light green color for the forest layer and adjusted the transparency to 50% to ensure the trails would stand out. Next, per the request of Paul, I added Mountain Laurel Trail to the map, a trail that was added to the field station after the creation of the old map. I did this by tracing a layer of GPS data for the new trail, then added it to the MacLeish trail layer.
My next major challenge was to decide how to symbolize the trail layers so that they would be distinct, regardless of the user’s ability. I turned to a mapping and data science technique called redundant encoding, where multiple attributes or visual variables are used to encode a given feature of type of data, rather than relying solely on color or dash type. I distinguished the trails from each other by choosing a unique number of lines, type of dash, and color. For example, the Hemlock Trail has a thick, solid red line. Jimmy Nolan Brook trail has a single orange line with a dotted dash. Another way I distinguished the trails from each other was by creating a unique icon for each trail. I searched for icons using The Noun Project, a website with free stock photos and icons for download. For the Hemlock Trail, I searched for a “hemlock” icon; for the Porcupine Trail, I searched for a “porcupine” icon, and so on. This was directly inspired by a MacLeish map done by a previous Smithie (shown earlier in this blog post). I hope that triple encoding the trails and including unique icons provide numerous ways the user could locate trails on the map.
I went through several rounds of feedback with my fellow SAL associates and employees, as well as Becca and Paul from CEEDS. They reminded me of good cartography practices and helped me improve my symbology choice to ensure all map features were as accessible and easily understood as possible. We added features such as stonewalls, high and low elevation points, the Bechtel classroom, and others to ensure the map users can navigate the field station safely. After quite a bit of editing, I came up with the finished version of the kiosk map (see below). Becca and Paul also requested a smaller version of the map with more visible stonewalls for members of the Smith community who visit the field station.
This project was an exciting opportunity to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, implement my learned knowledge of mapping for accessibility, and improve the kiosk map for future visitors of the MacLeish Field Station for years to come!
Fish Fischer ’24