Monte17

NCAA Athletic Conference Maps

Hi Monte17,

I noticed the maps you are creating for the college athletic conferences. I like how you use two (or more) different colors for the dots on the maps as appropriate (i.e. football / non-football, east/west, etc.).

But some of the features of these maps make it very difficult to read.

The dark black (for water) makes it more difficult to read any text that is on top of the ocean (i.e. the name Houston in the C-USA map). Light blue would be a better option.

In several cases, you have text that starts on a light background and crosses over to a dark background. It makes it more difficult to read than it should be. It's an issue with Houston, Central Florida, Eastern Michigan, and others.

The use of one of the school's colors for the color of the text also makes it very difficult to read, and sometimes makes it confusing when these colors conflict with the dots. For example, the Conference USA map has a red dot for East Division and a blue dot for the West Division. However, Memphis (East division) has its name in blue, and Southern Methodist and Houston (West) have their names in red, and then Tulsa, Rice, and UTEP (West) have their names in blue.

West Virginia and Southern Miss (with their names in yellow) are nearly impossible for many readers to decipher.

There's way too much "going on" in this map, and it detracts from the user experience. I understand the appeal of having the school's colors as part of the name, but it just doesn't work.

I think that if you wanted to show the school's colors, it would be better to add the logos of each school somewhere to the page. It doesn't belong on the map - the map is just supposed to be about the locations of the schools.

Would it be possible for you to make changes to the maps and re-upload them so they are more readable for everyone?

Mdak06 (talk) 14:02, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

P.S. my apologies - I accidentally edited the user page instead of the talk page the first time.

File:Big12Locations6.png

Hey just a heads up Kansas and Kansas State need to be swopped on this image.

--Dcheagle 19:59, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

FYI regarding college athletic conference maps

There is a discussion on the Project College Football talk page regarding the overview maps that are used in the InfoBoxes of college athletic conference pages. We're trying to develop some sort of consensus on how the maps should be built (which states are/aren't shaded, colors, non-full members, etc.) and your input would be welcome. The discussion is here: Athletic conference overview maps and their lack of consistency Mdak06 (talk) 21:55, 15 July 2012 (UTC)