Exercise 4 - Emily

The map I have is Perth – Alice Springs (via “Gunbarrel Highway” or Great Central Road). It basically shows the way to get to Alice Springs from Perth, giving you two options of routes to take. Although the map is very simple it uses a few techniques to make it easy for the viewer to read. Highlighting is used very successfully in a couple of ways, but the most successful is where the map shows where the restricted areas are. By looking at the map these areas clearly stand out and it becomes obvious to the reader to stay out of these areas. Another principle the map uses is the use of colour. From the legend and the different colours in the map, we can easily see that the main route is coloured in red and the other roads are in black, so the reader isn’t misunderstood on what route to take. Also, the background colours of the map are kept very light, so the actual roads really stand out and are easy to read. This map does work for me, because it is very simple. Its simplicity is attributed to the fact that many other roads not along the route have been taken out, to make the route more clear. This can be confusing to readers, and it could be a bad thing because they don’t have the option of going a different way. But it think this was a good choice to do this for travelers only going a route shown, it cuts out the visual distraction and makes the map simple and clear.