PART 4
PART 3
The main insight I felt on my site was diversity, and I wanted to represent it on my map. But feedback and everyone’s maps helped me realize that my forces were too specific. For my final map, I tried to widen my forces, while trying to keep the focus on diversity.
PART 2
Base map
Variety of food + ethnicities
Activities
Quiet places + water
Parking
Traffic
PART 1
I chose The District at Tustin Legacy as my site. Many restaurants and shops have been renovated and the mall has been turned into a lively atmosphere. I observed a part of The District at the intersection of Barranca Pkwy and Jamboree Rd, and another at The District and Park Ave. The overall feeling of the area is clean, organized and active.
Variety of food + ethnicities
The area has a fun collection of restaurants, bars, desserts and cafes and there were various types of food from many ethnicities and cultures. The place does not lean towards one particular food or tradition, and many things are well blended together.
Activities for all ages
There are a variety of activities for all ages, from kids to adults. Each shop has its own vibe. Here are a list of a few activities and shops based on my observation:
Quiet places + water
The area with the Union Market and AMC is quieter and more leisurely than the area with the grocery market and Costco gas station opposite to it. I also noticed that the area around the fountains is mostly quieter than the other areas. The size of each fountain is not huge, but water sounds give a relaxing feeling in the artificial area. There are always rest areas next to the fountains. Many groups of people are taking breaks around the fountain area.
Parking
There are huge parking lots around this area. They are mostly public parking but I could see the valet and Uber/Lyft lounge at a location. Also, the electric vehicle charging stations were available and many people were charging their cars at the parking lot. The front of most parking lots have 20 minute parking areas and loading zones for pickup.
Traffic
There is a certain area that always has a heavy traffic. The busiest road is where the Costco gas station and Whole Foods are. Most roads are not that busy but traffic is always slow because there are many stop signs and many people cross the street.
Young Sun,
I’ll echo the comments of the others that your map is very clean and clear and also just appealing in general. The simplicity of your map paired with the variation you used in the way you depicted different forces makes it easy to understand without any explanation and I think I’m going to leverage this idea to improve my own map today. One of the things I take away from this map is that there is an interesting contrast between the entertainment and the quiet areas and it’s additionally interesting they are located near each other…almost as if the quiet places server as buffers or deliniators between different things. I’m not sure I completely understand what Jessie is asking for regarding a “project in the making” but I think there is some potential here with these contrasts.
Hi Kathy, thanks for your feedback! The interesting thing about this site is that the quiet places are located together where the entertainment and restaurants are. Those areas are much quieter and relaxing than the shopping areas. I will update my map with the ideas I learned from your and others’ maps soon, so I would love to hear your thoughts and suggestions!
Young Sun, I heard through the grapevine how amazing your combined map is. I love how you represented the traffic speeding up and slowing down and integrating pedestrians into that pattern. I could really get a sense of the ethnicity force, and your choices for building highlights and parking lots are insightful and pleasing. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Tara, thank you! I was hoping to show the feeling of traffic movement, so I am glad that you got that feeling! 🙂
Hi Youngsun!
I just wanted to drop in and say that I LOVE how your combined map turned out! Really beautiful and clear. You’ve depicted each force with a lot of nuance and thought. Well done!
Hi Serena, thank you! I wish my map also has more natural environments like your beautiful park map..!
Young Sun,
Great map! As others have mentioned, I really like the clarity. 🙂 Good choice of colors. I especially like that you have mapped sub-categories or other dimensions within your forces, which few people have done. I think that’s awesome and very interesting because it allows us to draw more patterns and interpretations from it.
For your Variety of food + ethnicities map, maybe there’s a way to acknowledge the flags in your map legend, either by listing each country name with its flag or just placing them all and saying “origin of food? I think the visual style works great, it just took me a bit to process what the flags meant, and I looked up to the key for that info. On the map as well is there any significance to the placement of the squares? Some are centered in the middle of the building and some are placed to the corner. At first I thought one of the big buildings contained a restaurant next to a drink shop, but do you mean the building is both of these categories?
For the fountain map, do there exist quiet places that don’t have a fountain? Or do you mean quiet created by the falling water? Curious what determines the size of the quiet circle.
Great work and interesting forces. Thanks 🙂
Ken, sorry for the late reply and thanks for your feedback for part 2 of my map! Your question and suggestion really helped my final map. For your question about variety of food + ethnicities map, I struggled with showing the flags to define each country. For example, it was hard to define a certain country for a Mediterranean restaurant. So, I divided the food into 3 broad ways, Asian, Western, and dessert/drink, so that I could simplify the scope but keep the idea of varieties of food and ethnicity.
Also for your question about the fountain, I observed that most of the rest area was next to a place with a fountain. However, some fountain areas were quiet and some areas were noisy from many people, especially kids. I tried to represent the ideas of two different fountain settings on my final map, where the size of circle basically represents the boundary of quiet place.
Look forward to receiving more feedbacks from you for my final map. Thanks for the insightful feedbacks!
Youngsun, I was struck by how clean and beautiful your draft 1 map is! I especially loved the water/quiet area distinctions, I actually feel like I felt it when I was looking at the iconography for them. I selfishly kind of want you to explore that force a little more somehow, as your map is the first to make me “feel” the force illustrated. Perhaps make the halo around in quiet areas just slightly little bigger?
Another thought I had was abstracting the parking map a little bit through color saturation – maybe more saturated colors meaning high turnover, and lower saturation meaning less turnover. I thought of this because some spaces have 20min limits, etc.
Hey, Cindy. That’s great feedback! I was thinking to make the circle bigger to present the quiet feeling more clearly on the final map. And thanks for your insightful idea for the parking! The parking is the one of biggest part on the map but I was not sure about my representation. I definitely think the idea of displaying color saturation can help indicate the meaning of each feature! 🙂
Young, You food-ethnicity mapping looks really nice. I like you approach. I wonder if you could incorporate a similar technique for the activities map.
Thanks for your feedback Omar. I am glad that you like my ethnic food map! I was thinking about showing individual activities but I was worried that there would be too much clutter when those two forces gather on the final map. Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for this. Thank you!
Hi Young Sun
I really enjoyed reading your post. I specifically liked how clean and organized it was. Not only is your post laid out in a way that is very organized and easy to read, but you had multiple examples for each force. When talking about food, it was great to see how you had multiple examples of the different ethnic foods represented at your site. And you had several photos representing different subgroups for each of your other forces, which I thought added value to your overall post. Do you plan on also representing the sub groups of your forces in your mappings? I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with for your mappings! – Joe
Hi Joe, thanks for your feedback for the pre-map! As you mentioned, I represented the subgroups of some forces in my map. I still need to figure out how to put these together without clutter on the final map. Thanks, Joe!