This spring I intend to continue
work on the cartography project that began last semester in GGS311 with Prof.
Hallden. The initial pitch was to create
a static map for a walking tour through the varied musical history of
Washington, D.C. Not only would this satisfy my final project requirements, but
it would also be a useful tool for tourism in the District. Time permitting; an
extended goal was to display the map in a large format similar to a brochure
with an overview and specific descriptions of the locations and multiple tour
paths. Valuable feedback from critique sessions with classmates yielded a more
finite scope. In its current state, the Chunk of Punk map shows significant
locations of the D.C. punk scene that are within walking proximity from each
other and/or metro stations.
The decision to revisit this map is based on many reasons. At the top of the list is the previous class’s
strong response to my proposal and their general favor of the punk rock tour
over other genres. This was a pleasant surprise and a serious motivator. Secondly,
Dr. Hallden’s foresight on what the map could become within the scope of GGS411
(IF I should choose to accept the mission). That inspired my idealized vision
of the form and function. The map is all
about moving thru time and space to music. Add some animations (there are
already footsteps) and some sound (Sharing =Caring=Fugazi ), do some scripting
and some more scripting and fix more scripting and Voila! -A useable dynamic
map that can be posted to the interwebs and accessed from desktop and mobile
devices. That’s cool and I wanna make a cool map that’s cooler than me. Don’t
we all?
That brings us to now, April 6th,
2015. What have I learned so far? What can I do? What should I not do? What can I complete or
successfully accomplish before May 11th, 2015?
-So far I have learned how to use
Adobe Flash to some adequate degree and it is capable of handling the animation,
rollovers, and audio files that would effectively augment the map. Combined
with other Creative Cloud products I can add photos, videos, and songs to
places on the map. I do need to be very wary of getting carried away. I am
faced with a ton of possibilities and capabilities but time is not on my side. Our
lab work with JSON and geoJSON files opens up the possibility to also geolocate
the addresses of the current and former sites of distinction. It would be wise
to maintain alignment to goals that fit within the brochure format and optimize
select features for interactivity. Make the map fun and engaging, but not too
busy or overloaded with clickable content. One of the strengths of the current
map is its clean look. That can only help users with small touchscreens.
The map will continue to evolve
beyond the end of this course. There is no need to fit everything in right now.
Specific design ideas and questions:
-Make the large
title graphic a splash screen with credits to unlock space on the map
-Edit the site choices- a few
important venues are missing from the static version
-Stick to a walk-able public transit
path? Single path? Multi-stage?
-Collect more content from the DC Library
Punk Archive: photos, fanzines, etc.
-Link Metro Stops to live-ish
updates of train schedule
-Cue interactive features by location
(may not fit within scope of GGS411)
