Instructor discussion questions

Chapter 13 Discussion Questions

  1. Chapter 13 argues that every thematic method carries a default lie. Which default lie is easiest for students to miss, and why might it be persuasive precisely because the map looks familiar?
  2. The chapter distinguishes phenomena from data collected about phenomena. How should this distinction change the way students justify method selection before styling a map?
  3. Classification, scaling, smoothing, filtering, and distortion are rhetorical decisions. Which of these choices most deserves explicit documentation in student submissions, and why?
  4. Heat maps, isarithmic maps, and flow maps can look especially authoritative or dynamic. How can instructors help students critique beauty, smoothness, and motion-like visual effects as possible sources of overconfidence?
  5. Multivariate maps promise completeness but risk cognitive overload. When is simultaneity genuinely necessary, and when should designers use small multiples, toggles, or linked views instead?