Layout

Visual hierarchy

Did you give the most visual emphasis to the information that you want someone to notice relatively quickly and remember long after they stop looking at your map? Did you develop the illusion of depth on your map? Do the most important features appear in the foreground? Have you made reference features, like roads, administrative boundaries, labels for major regions or locations, and graticule lines sit back in your visual hierarchy, so that they aren’t the first things that people notice about your map but are nonetheless clearly legible? When you stand at a distance from the map and squint your eyes, are the things that appear darkest or heaviest on your map the most important elements on your map?

Vertical hierarchy

People may perceive things that are high on the layout as more important than things that are low. In western cultures, people tend to scan clockwise, beginning somewhere on the left, often top left. Did you place titles or arrange important features in these privileged positions? Did you put less important items (like credits and data sources) in the lower corners?

Visual center

The visual center of your map is a little higher than dead center. Did you try to arrange your layout so that you place an important feature there. Please note that this is likely most important for maps that people will see all at once, like printed maps in books or posters or digital maps that are first seen at full extent. Printed ribbon maps and digital scrolly maps generally do not have a visual center.

Grid

What is your scheme for arranging elements on the page. Did you employ a grid, the golden ratio, or another scheme? Did you use something to align elements on your layout without using neat-lines, hard frames, and other distracting bounding lines? If you incarcerated your data in these lines, do these visual prisons fit your intended style?