Posting 3: Sensory Issues in Landscape

Africamap has a variety of features which help to alleviate sensory issues.  Looking at a map is never going to be the same as actually being in a place and directly experiencing the landscape, but Africamap has some tools which can provide a great deal of sensory data to the user.  The various layers allow the user to examine the landscape in many different ways.  The political topography can be examined along with the actual topography by combining these layers.  The ability to change the transparency of these different layers is enormously helpful, as it allows for combining these different data types.  

For this picture I overlaid the default hybrid map with a map of soil compositions.  Soil type can convey a great array of different information.  Its a major factor in how the land is used, which is a large determinate of the sensory experience in such a place.  Another helpful feature for this is the "Places" function, which allows the user to see the location of a great variety of different types of buildings, parks, rivers and other physical feature.  While it is shown as a simply red triangle, it is still useful insofar as it can really help locate the user in relation to whatever they want.  For this picture I chose to look at where all of the markets in the city of Sfax are:

A traditional map would just show place names, but with this, I can take what I know of a market (the sights, sounds, smells etc.) and apply it to this location.  While this requires a little imagination, it is still a fascinating and helpful feature of Africamap. 

While all information you can get from Africamap is ultimately visual, the YouTube feed is a way in which more of the senses can be engaged.  They allow you to go beyond looking at the landscape from the customary top down perspective.  By pinning videos to specific locations, they allow for a much richer experience of a specific place.  This video of surfing off the coast of Africa provides a great deal more sensory input then a satellite image ever could.  You can see they landscape in motion, and furthermore the video medium allows for the transmission of sound.  Hearing what a landscape sounds like, or hearing the local music provides the user with a much greater sense of sensory immersion.