Propose an idea and turn it into a map-centric website

Write a brief proposal for a final project, describing the topic, the output, and the evaluation criteria. Complete your final project according to your own guidelines specified in your proposal.

The overall requirement is a website with a map or maps. To produce this website, it is up to you to:

  1. Decide on a topic for your final project
  2. Write a proposal for your topic and evaluation criteria
  3. Find or create geographic information related to the topic
  4. Choose a way to present the information online
  5. Implement the technology
  6. Test your product thoroughly and submit it for evaluation

Topic

Decide on a topic for your final project

Think of something that interests you, or search online for ideas. It must be feasible to create a website and map(s) about it. Here is a nonexhaustive list to help you brainstorm:

Also see the course Moodle topic for the final project to download “Data and Maps for ArcGIS”, which includes file geodatabases of population and demographic data for U.S. counties and states, world cities, physical geography, and more.

Proposal

Write a proposal for your topic and grading criteria

Prior to beginning your project, submit a proposal so your instructor can provide feedback and help decide if the project and evalution are feasible. Write the proposal in two parts, each 100-300 words:

Proposal: overview (100-300 words)

Describe your general idea for a final project:

You do not need to be specific on every aspect, because you can change the finer details later, especially after we cover JavaScript. For example, you do not need to commit to ArcGIS Online, since you may later change to Leaflet on Github.

Writing example
...Map 1 will be hosted on an ArcGIS Online public account or another free alternative...

However, you should commit to the grading criteria and scope of work you propose.

Proposal: grading criteria (100-300 words)

How should your project be evaluated? Specify 4 to 10 requirements in your proposal. Your project will then be graded according to your criteria. Different topics will require different kinds and amounts of effort, and the grading criteria you propose should reflect that.

For example, if you put more effort into collecting your data than designing your website, then give more weight to data collection. The requirements in the example below are grouped into different phases: data collection, map making, web development, and documentation.

Writing example

- Data collection  
  1. Research all hospitals in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge metro areas to determine location and number of beds (30%)  
  2. Record and process data into GIS format(s) (10%)  
- Map making  
  3. Map of the Baton Rouge area hospital locations (5%)  
  4. Map of the New Orleans area hospital locations (5%)  
  5. Map of both areas with symbology that highlights hospital capacity vs. population served (10%)  
  6. Popups or other method allowing users to view information about each hospital (5%)  
- Web development  
  7. Story map or blog post to pull together all maps, information, and images (20%)  
- Documentation
  8. Description of the methods and sources for the research data (5%)  
  9. Description of layer(s) created from the data (5%)  
  10. Description of the maps and app, including what they show and how to use them (5%)

Criteria template (should add up to 100%)

Copy the template below into your proposal, using a minimum of 4 and maximum of 10. Specify the weights as percentages, adding up to 100%, with no more than 50% for a single requirement.

  1. Description of requirement (%)
  2. Description of requirement (%)
  3. Description of requirement (%)
  4. Description of requirement (%)
  5. Description of requirement (%)
  6. Description of requirement (%)
  7. Description of requirement (%)
  8. Description of requirement (%)
  9. Description of requirement (%)
  10. Description of requirement (%)

Data

You may create your own dataset by conducting research or you may use other sources, such as web services, CSVs, or shapefiles you find online. It will be up to you to convert your data into a Web GIS format and host it online if it is not already online. Refer back to previous assignments that covered finding and creating data.

Presentation

Choose a way to present the information online

This series of questions points out some options to consider. Make decisions based on what works best for your topic:

Technology

Implement whatever tools are necessary

Take your ideas and designs and begin constructing the project. Choose the software, websites, and services that will help you most closely attain your vision for the maps, multimedia, text, and overall presentation of your topic.

You decide whether to create a blog or a Story Map; whether to code with Leaflet or a different library that we didn’t cover in class; whether to use a public or subscription account in ArcGIS Online; or any other choice of tools.

Configure the mechanics of how your maps and website work, such as adding popups to convey information, controls to show and hide layers, and website navigation to make it easy to find information.

Test

Beta test your product thoroughly and submit it for evaluation

Put yourself in your audience’s shoes and test drive your own website and maps—click every tool, view your maps at different zoom levels, note how popups look on different devices, or generally try to break your application so you can fix problems before your audience finds them.

You can also use your browser’s developer tools to look for errors, test on mobile, and simulate low bandwidth.

Grading

The final project grade consists of your grading criteria and a score for overall “professionalism”.

Student grading criteria (75%)

Each requirement specified in your proposal will be given a letter grade for the following qualities:
A = Meets or exceeds requirement, no mistakes, example for other students
B = Meets requirement, but could be improved
C = Doesn’t meet requirement, but shows effort
D = Doesn’t meet requirement, low quality or low effort
F = Did not do it at all

Professionalism (25%)

A quarter of the final project grade will be scored according to the attention to detail and overall quality of your project, using the same letter-grade system as the student grading criteria. Here are some things to consider:

Take any other steps that you think would be appropriate to create a project that effectively communicates your topic.

Submit

  1. The URL to your website.

If your project consists of different pages and apps with different URLs, you should have a landing page that acts as a point of entry with links to all other pages/apps. This could be an Item Details page in ArcGIS Online, a website you created on Github, a blog, or something else. This way, you will only need to submit a single URL.