Visualizating Elevation along Amtrak’s Empire Builder Line

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# Visualizating Elevation along Amtrak’s Empire Builder Line
### Katie Jolly @ RLadies-Seattle katiejolly.io/rladies-datavis-20
### 2020-12-13

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# The final product!

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# But where to start...

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### 30 days of maps

1. Points

2. **Lines** &larr; (we are here!)

3. Polygons

4. Hexagons...

### What are some lines I can think of quickly?

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* Transportation routes (bus/train/ferry/etc.)

* Elevation

* Roads

* Origin-destination data

* Joyplots

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# Design time

(I chose elevation & the train route-- so many lines!)

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# Consider your audience 😄

1. Who is your audience?

* I was sharing my maps on Twitter and most of my followers are also R users and have some familiarity with the geography of the US

2. How is your audience viewing your work?

* On Twitter, which means I need to be mindful of image size and color for the best viewing experience

3. What do you want them to learn from it?

* The biggest takeaway should be how quickly the elevation changes along the route and how different each end is 
  
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# Find some data 🔍
I keep a bookmark folder of interesting datasets & articles/blog posts where I've seen them used well

.left-column[
 
[U.S. Geological Survey, USGS Small-scale Dataset 🔖](https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/581d051de4b08da350d523c3) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
[Bureau of Transportation Statistics 🔖](https://data-usdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/amtrak-routes)

]

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<img src="http://prd-tnm.s3.amazonaws.com/StagedProducts/Small-scale/thumbnails/cont48l010a_shp.png" width="50%" />

]

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# Choose the colors 🎨

[The Landmark Project](https://thelandmarkproject.com/products/glacier-national-park-poster)

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# Add labels 📝

Annotations can:

* Guide your readers to the main point

* Provide additional context

* Reiterate important points

But... *less is more!*

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I chose to use a few Amtrak stations along the way to anchor the route in recognizable places.

Especially when sharing on social media, your title should be short and catchy!

**When working on a tight timeline I like to use Illustrator/Inkscape to add labels**

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# Share your work! 📷 🎉

I ❤️ using Twitter for this!

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# See the code

[Github link](https://github.com/katiejolly/30-day-maps-2020/blob/main/02-lines/02-lines_empire_builder.R)