Compilation

Filter by purpose and scale

Do you show only those features or qualities of the world that are necessary to support the purpose of the map at the scale of your map? How do you defend your decisions to include some kinds of features and to leave other features off of your map? Is there anything on your map that attracts attention without contributing to the purpose of the map?

Reference features

Do you show features and place names that help people understand the location of something based on the location of one or more other things (i.e. allocentric referencing)? Do your reference features fit your visual hierarchy? Are they legible but not noisy?

Map scale and extent

Did you consider how the size of your region of interest, the amount of paper or monitor screen you have to work with, and your purpose for selecting and styling map elements influence your choice of scale? Did you make the scale (or representational fraction) a round number and something that easliy scales for measurement or reasoning about distance? (For example, on 1:62,500 scale, 1 inch equals 1 mile).