Honglei and Jacob will work together on this.
<p>
The overall layout could probably benefit from some
organizing lines or boxes to
separate the map detail area from the legend and the
controls.<br>
<br>
If the legend were titled using the query, then there
would be no need for a
link on the screen to pop up the awkward additional
browser window showing the
query used. This ensures that the legend can be
properly interpreted even if the
map title is not explicit (i.e. if the title reads merely ?CA
Population,? then
having ?% per MSA (aged 18-64)? as a legend title
becomes crucial).<br>
<br>
The legend labels should really give the true values
ranges. That is, the first
color may represent all percentages below a certain
threshold, but the following
colors do not represent all percentages below the given
thresholds. Instead they
represent percentages below the given threshold and
above the threshold of the
previous color. As such, they should read ?Greater than
or equal to [lower
limit] and less than [upper limit],? or some acceptable
abbreviation or
shorthand for this.<br>
<br>
Although the color ramp used is pleasing to the eye,
technically, because you
are portraying a range of quantitatively different values
(rather than
qualitatively different ones), you should use colors that
are all the same hue
while differing in intensity or value. For example, shades
of oranges or shades
of green would be appropriate.<br>
<br>
Somewhere (possibly the legend) the equal interval
method should be explicitly
listed as the method used to assign categories
(because quantile, natural
breaks, and standard deviation methods could be used
as well, and the choice
dramatically affects the appearance and interpretation of
the data). A
nice-to-have feature would let the user select the method
of breaking up the
range into categories, perhaps on the initial screen near
where the user selects
the number of categories.<br>
<br>
A key would be helpful in order to explain that the gray
shaded box represents
the area of the entire state that is currently visible in the
detail area at the
left. It could even say something like, ?Area covered by
detail map. Drag to
move the center of the detail map without changing
scale.? Likewise, text is
needed on the screen above the dynamic value display
that explains ?Roll over
detail map elements to see the applicable values
below.? The label ?ID? would be
clearer as ?MSA ID? or ?PUMA ID,? as applicable. It
seems somewhat redundant to
include the ?State? field at all, when it will be the same
for every geographic
feature.<br>
</p>
