Why spend a great amount of time creating a map? Why not just slap your data onto a layout, pick some colors at random, and use default legends, for example? One of the most succinct and best ways of explaining why we should spend the – admittedly large – amount of time that it takes to make a good map comes from the Dec/Jan 2009 issue of DYNAMIC GRAPHICS + create* magazine:
Design motivates consumers and educates the uninformed
If you start to internalize the importance of good design then you might not wind up making something as unreadable as this:
And perhaps you could create something more like this:
Background information: The Ohio telephone services area map is an actual map available from an actual agency, or at least it was in 2008 when it was published. The re-worked Ohio map is my own creation that I made for illustrative purposes after downloading the data from the same agency’s site. The main difference between the two maps is that mine actually has a visual hierarchy. That is, the first thing you see are the area code colors and the legend that goes with them. The second thing you see are the outlines for the telephone service areas, the third are the labels which denote which agency services which area – you can’t see the labels here because I’ve kept the image small so you’ll have to trust me on that one. The first map attempted to show each of the 36 – 36!!! – service areas with a different color. Obviously that didn’t work and they resorted to hashing and patterning to further distinguish them. Why not just label with a code as I have done and provide a look-up table? Well, it takes time to come up with those kinds of solutions!
Caveat: We all make bad maps. Especially at the beginning of a career. If you see a good map don’t think it was always good. It’s very likely that it was a mess in the beginning. Just like the first-draft of a paper, it usually needs a lot of work before it is great.
*The link to the magazine is here but their print magazine is much better looking than their website.
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