The majour focus of this project was how to change and simplify larger data sets so that the information can be more concise and understandable for the viewer. I did this by changing the focus of the program from four states to only Illinois by using a select and export process, the tool specifically which enabled this was Select by Attributes. This allowed me to create a feature layer that consisted of only the counties of Illinois, and after that I used the Export Features tool to change the Illinois layer from a shapefile into a geodatabase that I could work with. This type of data selection can be used in different ways, in this exercise the map is made with attributes from county data, but it could be used to demonstrate the centers of specific locations. Given that, it could be very useful in an environmental context where it would allow you to narrow down geographic areas of interest, like habitats of endangered species, from much larger regional studies which might have much more information than is needed for a particular study.