Category: Uncategorized

ArcGIS Experience

Throughout February I focused on improving my project, the Tree Map, when it comes to design ideas. I previously tried to set the interface of the ArcGIS Experience application to allow users to filter through tree data, and it technically worked well, but was not aesthetically pleasing. It also felt somewhat “busy” on the screen, making it seem that while the information is there, it is not appealing to look at which could discourage potential users.

In my new approach to visual design I tried to build on insights I got from focus session with a group of students. In the session I asked them to suggest an ideal functionality and design for a hypothetical tree map, and the wealth of potential functions was quite inspiring. However, at that point the screen of the application was already overfilled with information, so it became clear to me that in order to provide better functionality, a new design is needed. So, instead of trying to make all functions accessible from the main page, I explored the options of multiple pages and views.

Pages

I started off using a single main page which meant that all functionality was present right at the start screen. I completely underestimated the potential of multiple pages, and I really am happy that I recognize it now, as it allows for much clearer view of the data.

The present development includes four different pages that the user can switch between. One of the main reasons why I initially did not consider to explore the multi-page functionality is because of the ability to show entirely different screens, which breaks the illusion of different forms of interaction with the map. To avoid that I maintained the left-side page menu through all the pages, and used the same map for all pages interacting with it — “Map”, “Special Trees” and “Paths”. This allows the users to feel as if they simply change the settings, while in reality the entire setup of the interface changes. Most importantly, the information is categorized, so the screen does not feel as “busy” as it did before.

The current development allowed me to create a version of Catalog that I am happy about. I really want the information about trees to be displayed clearly, and having a small sidebar or pop-up windows really does not encourage engagement with the app. So, being able to use the entirety of the screen dimensions (since there is no need to display the map) I set up a large list widget with a fixed panel on the right side. While there is a lot of development left to do when it comes to specific information being show, I think that it is better to have more space (where new information will be added in the future) than stack up too much information in confined space.

Views

Another feature of ArcGIS Experience that I recently took advantage of is the View widget. Similarly to Pages, it allows me to offload the screen from displaying too much information. While Pages change the display of the entirety of the screen, Views only changes the contents of a specific Section of the screen. I thought it would be a reasonable choice to have the section be a form of sub-menu, additional to the Pages one to the left. The menu of Views appears only on the page that contains View-operated Section, making it accessible only when needed, and thus not adding more clutter to the screen.

I really appreciate this feature because it allows me to categorize the type of information within the application, and not create unnecessary pages that won’t have a significant difference in functionality. Also, it provides a rather clear setup for the users to understand – for example, only when you select “Paths” you are able to browse the different “Paths” available to take. If using only Pages, the display of Page menu would make it so that all the paths would be visible from any part of the site, which is just unnecessary and counterintuitive.

General Conclusion

The use of both Pages and Views is a true renaissance for Tree Map interface. Acting together they behave as a menu with sub-menus, making the functionality of the experience much clearer visually but also conceptually for the potential users. It is also much more straight-forward to work with the map from the developer’s perspective, as every page/view is independent from others, allowing for more experimentation and results that are much more visible.

I enjoy working with Story Maps!

I started off my work with choosing a topic for the story – this didn’t take long as I reminded myself of Polish series (that I should definitely rewatch soon). Storymap makes it easy to start sketching out the idea that I want to share, and has a few features that make the process of visualizing data more straight-forward. As an ArcGIS product, it is particularly well-adjusted to displaying maps. While in my project I did not utilize those features, I see a certain potential for use.

However, there are some downsides to StoryMap. For example, I find that the menu of moving different containers is not clear enough. I could not find a way to manipulate the margins, padding or box size. I also wish there were more natural, base elements to add within the site. The ones that are available feel very specific, to the point that general use case may need to misuse those. It feels that Story Maps does not have straight-forward means to create content that may streach well beyond just maps.
However, I appreciate the option to embed code, that opens doors for more complex (and harder to create) elements.

Link to the storymap:

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/96fd7354a94b4ab599cece9fd9d48c2d

It is a little bit past the half-semester marker — spring break — so it is about time to reflect on what being a Vivero Fellow for the Campus Tree Map has been like for me.

Most importantly, working on the Tree Map has been really enjoyable. Anytime I sit down to work on a task I find myself doing it longer than I anticipated. I am not sure whether that is because of the fun context of the project (trees are fun!), the friendly support of project lead or the satisfaction of overcoming a technical difficulty (which I have had quite a few!).

I am happy with the extent of the project I was able to build so far. Starting off I had a lot of questions and unsureness of which exact direction the map will take nor what will be the specific timeline. We tried to have a sketch of it, but it turned out that going step-by-step may yield more predictable results in those first weeks. At this point, having set up the basis for the map, I can have a better insight into what the future will bring.

At this point, the map is rather functional. Here are some of the core things I worked on:

ArcGIS Experience User Inteface

Working with the ArcGIS is a new experience that I find (mostly) fun. I really like observing how the not-super-user-friendly plain ArcGIS map turns into fully interactable product that can be accessed by anyone on the internet. The variety of features facilitating data visualization gives me a lot of freedom to choose how I want the project to be presented. I currently have 3 widgets: filter that can look for desired species/genuses, ‘about’ section and catalog of all trees, ready to have their pictures and descriptions added. I plan on adding at least one more widget in the upcoming future — a survey that allow the users to submit feedback about the trees/photos.

Tree dataset cleanup

That was a challange! There is a lot of trees on campus and it is not easy to keep information about them updated leading to a dataset that contained a lot of inconsistencies. This allowed me to have all species/genuses be displayed in ArcGIS Experience as desired by the users, without confounds (such as the same name spelled slightly differently — leading to many distinct instances of the same species). I have recently added two layer for trees that need to be revisited — one for those that are presumed to be gone, but still are included in the map dataset (though not displayed) as well as those that have been seen in real life but are not marked on map. I hope this will facilitate the work of students who are to collect/update data on the trees.

Updating the map’s visuals

Working inside of the ArcGIS I made some changes to how the map is displayed. I have changed the background to make the points on the map clearly visible yet located in the context of the crucial campus features (from satellite image). I also have every distinct genus on campus be represented by different symbol that corresponds to leaf shape of each of the genuses. I also updated the format of pop-up windows so that once the user clicks on a point on map the information is more clearly conveyed. I now plan to add one more layer with distinct colors for different species of the same genus that will allow the users to more clearly distinct between species in a filter-by-genus mode.

Other than implementing technical updates to the map I also hope to soon lead a focus group with members of biology faculty and SEPC. I hope that their feedback and witnessing their interaction with the app will provide us with more insight into potential need for changes at this stage, and ideas for the future.

Gale is a great program for any kind of literary research! I am amazed by how quickly and (mostly) accurately it processes the data. Access to seemingly endless lookup directory is one of the core features of the program, allowing to browse through millions of archived documents with as little as a single word search. Even though such process is quite similar to ”googling”, there is a some sense of exploration of the unknown that is integral to looking at original texts. Gale really gives the ability to browse through those texts to the users, which can significantly broaden their understanding of the contexts that their appear in. There is much more to understanding the meaning of writing than just analyzing the syntax!

Speaking of syntax, Gale does a great job in allowing us to look into it! Thanks to its own writing-to-text analysis tool it transcribes the texts from original source into digital text format. This allows Gale to critically examine the different properties of the piece, such as the choice of words, style, or attitude. These can serve as quantitative data sources for literary research!

My favorite find on the platform is a piece of writing from a France-based Polish newspaper from the Fall of 1939 that reports on the war progress. Seeing the actual pages of the newspaper deeply changes the experience of interacting with the contents. It feels much more personal and tangible, which is exactly what one would want from digitalized media — to have it be as in-person-like as possible.

ArcGIS really is one of my favorite tools in digital humanities. This may be because I have had a few experiences with it before starting as a Vivero Fellow (and the more we know something the more we like it!). Using ArcGIS in a few different context really showed me the variety of uses for this program, as well as the way the maps can be customized to best convey desired message. I previously worked with information where I only displayed one variable — the geographical location of populations’ town of residence. I approached it by using uniform symbols that varied in size depending on the number of individuals they represented (which happens only when they overlap when “zooming out”). The Campus Tree Map I am working on this year has much more to show, but there are still some of the categories of information that are more important than others.

That’s how we got down to three variables we would like to display – species, genus and geographical location. This way, we can make the information straight forward without unnecessarily oversimplifying it.

ArcGIS is rather intuitive, but only to some extent. At some point, however, I find it necessary to go to a community support page. This speaks to the wide range for the uses of the program — there is a lot of features that I was not aware of at first but that changed my perspective entirely upon discovering.

Reflecting on Omeka

Using Omeka was quite an experience!
From the very beginning, it gave me the impression of old-style sites with the strong html flavor. It is not a bad thing, but at times where most sites are visually captivating I was taken aback by how wikipedia-like Omeka feels. And through its exploration I got an idea of what are the upsides and downsides of that design choice.

First, let’s begin with the advantages. It clearly serves its purpose – it is made for those who prioritize clear categorization of featured items and keep a detailed record of their metadata. It has a great system of adding items, where each gets the deserved classification. In WordPress I always end up storing no longer used media, often multiple versions of the same image, but I am not confident on which one to delete. Here, it is much cleaner to look through the imported content. Furthermore, it is also great how it incentivizes full description of featured data, so that anyone who finds it on the site can trace it back to where it came from, which does not seem like standard for images online. What is the most wonderful about Omeka is that it is open sourced, allowing for users’ creativity to make up for Omeka’s shortcomings.

So, what are some of those aspects of Omeka I would like to change? A big one is the set of problems I ran into from the very start. Just to add an image to the post I needed to troubleshoot 3 different issues. While the solutions proposed on Omeka forum worked well, I still wish there was no issues to begin with — meaning that maybe the initial setup should be more forgiving to a first-time user that may not want to google around for help. The interface seems less intuitive than most of other platforms I worked with — especially when it comes to said troubleshooting, but yet it is simple enough to navigate the basic procedures even with little design experience.

Overall, Omeka gets a strong B+ from me. If the potential use case pressures the importance of concise data storage — going with Omeka should be the right choice.