(I wanted to just say “time and effort” was all that was required but that didn’t seem detailed enough.)
- Learn to ask for feedback. Receive feedback non-defensively and filter it for the best ideas. Ask for feedback from GIS and cartography professionals but also from non-professionals. You never know what kind of novel idea a non-professional might come up with.
- Put in the time. Re-do, re-do, re-do. The London Tube map has been in the making since at least Henry Beck’s first diagrammatic attempt in 1931. He continued to redesign it until 1960 and it has certainly gone through many more iterations since then as well.
- Sleep on it. If you can allow your brain down-time to work on the map design process in your subconscious, better ideas will assuredly come to you. What we try to avoid is having the great idea come to us directly after turning the map in to the client or boss.
- Research. That’s right, no project occurs in a vacuum. What else has been done in the same vein? Aim to improve upon previous attempts.
- Use graphics processing software to better manage colors, fonts, and shading, to name a few.
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