#SWDchallenge: March MAPness
Maps are one of the most common visuals; we see them frequently in the news, and many of us learned about maps in school. I have vivid memories of spending hours coloring maps for school projects and homework assignments. Given how familiar and popular maps are, it's not surprising that folks often default to using one as their chosen visual whenever a data set has a geographic component.
At SWD, we don’t encounter a ton of geospatial data from our business clients, so historically we haven’t created much in the way of maps. To balance that, this month, we’ve decided to turn our attention to maps— let’s call it March MAPness!
From start to finish, we’ll spend the month learning more about the basics of maps. On March 1st, Cole chatted live with cartographer and author of Cartography., Kenneth Field, for an episode of the SWD podcast. At the end of the month, I’ll take us through a map-themed live event (open to premium members). And most importantly, throughout the entire month, you will have the chance to practice mapping with this month’s SWD challenge.
Join us as we focus attention on making maps this month!
the challenge
Identify data that lends itself well to make a map. While many of us will likely gravitate towards geospatial data, feel free to choose any sort of spatial data.
For inspiration, check out the related resources section below. Share your creation here by March 31st at 3PM PST. If there is specific feedback or input that you would find helpful, include that detail in your commentary.
related resources
Here are some additional examples and resources for inspiration. This is a starting point, but certainly not a comprehensive list (if there are other great examples you’d like to share, feel free to include links in your submission commentary).
Andy Kirk’s post on mapping spatial data
Jon Schwabish’s One Chart at a Time series (geospatial playlist)
Joshua Stevens’ guide on creating bivariate choropleth maps
Kenneth Field’s online gallery of map creations, Cartography.
Lisa Charlotte Rost’s choropleth considerations
Nathan Yao’s collection of maps
Ron Halliday‘s tile map comparison
SWD podcast episode: maps with Kenneth Field