Process
For my personal campus map, I chose five locations that represent different parts of my daily life at Carleton. I included West Gym (which is where I have swim practice), Burton Hall (my dorm), Anderson Hall (where I have my research meetings with my partner and advisor), Leighton Hall (where I take my religion class and sometimes have movie nights with friends), and Sayles (which is my favorite spot to do homework and socialize).
I built the CSV file and uploaded it to ArcGIS Online, customized the symbols, and added labels for clarity. When designing my map, I wanted it to feel a little more personal and fun, so I made the labels purple, mostly because I just like purple and thought it added some personality. I also picked a basemap that made the campus buildings stand out clearly while still keeping the overall look clean and easy to read. For the polygon layer, I outlined the main buildings I visit most often, and used a heatmap-style symbology based on how often I visit each spot per week, so the map visually reflects my routines.
Reflection
In terms of reflection, this assignment showed me how much potential web mapping has for digital humanities work. Even something as simple as mapping the spaces that shape my everyday experience can tell a story about community, movement, and space. Interactive maps like this can be used to visualize anything from historical changes to patterns of social life, making them great tools for exploring relationships between people and places.
Overall, I found ArcGIS Online to be very intuitive once I got the hang of it. I liked that it allows you to quickly upload data, experiment with styles, and share your results in an interactive way. It makes it easy to move from a spreadsheet to a fully functional, web-based map that others can explore, which feels like a great bridge between data and storytelling.
2 thoughts on “My Personal Campus Map”
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Daya! I enjoy how you note the narrative aspect of mapping. I think with the rise of more directions-oriented maps like Google Maps etc., it becomes easy to lose the other messages that can be found in visual representations. I also agree that the quick upload of data to ArcGIS was incredibly helpful and made the whole process far simpler.
I commend you for your positivity towards ArcGis. I totally agree with your take on the use of interactive maps. They can both hold more information and be fun to use. I wasn’t very happy with the aesthetics of my own map. I felt I created a very functional and data driven map but it lacked character. I wish I was able to see your map.