I think the beauty of Geographic Information System software is that you can manipulate data in so many different ways that rarely are two maps alike. GIS opens itself up to an immense number of possibilities and creative input. It is a multifaceted tool that allows geographers to manipulate and represent their world any way they see fit. During this tutorial I was following instructions line by line to produce a similar product as everyone else, but still, none of our maps are exactly the same. Everyone has different aesthetic input and when you are creating a map on ArcGIS the options seem limitless and entirely dependent on your purpose and personal taste. The maps can be as colorful or as plain as you want, with the entire spectrum at your fingertips, it is hard not to make a map look the way you want.
Throughout the tutorial I was tempted to change and manipulate so many layers and options on the map just to see what the program was capable of, but as my first time handling this relatively complicated software I felt it would create too many problems I wouldnt be able to solve on my own. The tutorial was a bit repetitive and mundane, but thats exactly the way it needed to be. It walks you through the program one baby step at a time and then it asks you to repeat steps, which is perfect for committing anything to memory. If somone working with this software can't even remember the most basic manipulations from this tutorial then they should not be using this software ever.
I guess the biggest downfall to this software is that it is daunting to any newcomer. The interface is not very user friendly and for someone to become completely familiar with every option and toolbar available would take countless hours of banging your head against a keyboard just to get the program to do what you want. That is probably the biggest issue, you know what you want your map to be and how to look, but the process of translating that idea through the softare into a product is a gruelling ordeal of trial and error. I guess the best thing for any newcomer to GIS software is to just take a deep breath and tell themsleves that it will get easier with time and practice. It's just like learning anything new and people are incredibly maleable and can learn almost anything if they put the right amount of effort into it.
GIS is truly a marvelous tool. It offers itself to so many functions and is incredibly useful in almost any field, which just goes to demonstrate what a spatially centered world we live in. Its most appealing aspect is the fact that it lets you visualize any number of parameters all at once and best of all it is entirely open to manipulation and alterations. This ability to manipulate existing data sets is unbelievably useful, given that we live in an everchanging world that never stays constant. In order to solve dynamic real world problems, we need to use dynamic software that can bend to those problems in the best effort to come up with a solution. I know GIS cant help solve all our problems, but Im gald it's a tool that is available to us.
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