NACIS 2022

Making Maps Accessible
Amy Ellison
Accessibility is important! Maps can be more thoughtfully designed to help those with color vision deficiency (color blindness) and low vision from the beginning of the project. And afterwards, it is important to follow through with making the final product as accessible as possible, either in print or online. The State of Minnesota has produced a number of helpful guides, styles, and tips to design maps more accessible, as well as make maps online (PDFs, JPGs, interactives, etc.) as accessible as possible. All of these are available on the Minnesota Office of Accessibility website: https://mn.gov/mnit/about-mnit/accessibility/maps/.

Bringing the Joy Back to Mapmaking
Can Duruk
At Felt, we believe that anyone anywhere should be able to create and share a map on the internet. We also believe that mapmaking should be approachable, creative, and fun! Join this live demo to collaborate on a Felt map using a set of smart drawing tools, curated and custom data layers, drag-and-drop capabilities for images and links, and so much more. Come prepared to experience mapmaking in a different way and one that is uniquely Felt! We promise you’ll leave with a smile on your face.

Doing Things in R That I Normally Do in Illustrator and Photoshop
Kati Perry
For a 2021 AP story on disappearing sea ice in the Arctic, I needed to prepare for publication dozens of map layers showing sea ice concentration over the decades. Normally, I'd process TIFFs using Photoshop and layer them in Illustrator, but since I had so many, I translated my workflows to R. I'll share a couple of tricks I used with grDevices and ImageMagick to create color palettes, process and prepare the images, and produce publication-ready maps.

Elevate Your Halo Game
Lauren Tierney
No not the video game... halos for map labels, of course! Improve the legibility of your type masking and map label 'halos' to provide your audience with easier to read maps. This presentation will share tips and tricks for adding and improving map halos in Illustrator, Photoshop, and additional mapmaking environments.

Making Better Bike Maps
Doug Shidell
A good bicycle route has “flow,” is connected to other bike routes and trails, and feels comfortable to ride. A good bike map presents those routes in a simple, easy-to-read format. The concepts are simple, but the challenge is in the detail and the field research. Doug Shidell, former publisher of Bikeverywhere maps and guides, has 50 years of experience researching and publishing bike maps. He’ll share tips and recommendations for creating print and digital maps that bike riders will actually use.

Import Sections of Geospatial Data Files into MAPublisher
Gene Thorp
Importing more data than you need into your MAPublisher files can be a time-consuming process and significantly slow down your production performance. This short tutorial shows a few ways to import only the parts of a dataset that you need to help you keep your file sizes small and your projects moving.

Slack channel: #nacis2022-greathall