Web Mapping & Analysis

Map Design

Dani Arribas-Bel

Today

  • Designing maps
  • Design Elements
  • Design Principles

Mapbox

Guide to Map Design

https://www.mapbox.com/designers/

Designing Maps

What is design?

“To plan in the mind, intend”

Oxford English Dictionary

Why is design relevant?

  • Explicitly consider the purpose of your map
  • Encode your goals in the final product
  • Influence decisions along the map making process

How to think about design?

  • Elements: building blocks
  • Principles: how to combine them

Design Elements

Color

  • Grab attention
  • Encoding similarity, meaning
  • Aesthetics, brand, tone, etc.

Texture

  • “Perceived surface”
  • Contributes to look and feel, but can also encode information (e.g. rugosity)
  • Like color, without color
 URL: Nat. Geo.

Labelling/typography

  • Signal locations

  • Keep readability in mind

  • Typography communicates character, tone, style, etc.

    [Sources: Helvetica, Palatino]

Helvetica

Palatino

Iconography/markers

  • Mark a location
  • Encode category, etc.
  • Aesthetics
 URL: Mapbox

Design Principles

Contrast

Low contrast

High contrast
  • Wired to the human brain
  • Focus attention to areas of interest
  • May hinder readability

Visual Hierarchy

  • Priority order
  • Foreground Vs Background
  • How much each aspect is “abstracted”

Visual Hierarchy: Content
  • Do not clutter
  • Keep in mind cognitive load of each element
  • Align with the core message

Visual Hierarchy: Context

Low contrast

High contrast
  • Provide the “right” background
  • Ensure it does not have protagonism
  • Include only if it helps read the content better

Density

Low contrast

High contrast
  • Information Vs Clutter
  • Think of the purpose and audience
  • Consider: placement, size, readbility

Legibility

Is the message you try to get across getting across?
  • Context-dependent
  • Combination of iconography, typography, proximity of features, etc.

Other considerations

Projections

Map Projections

How do you want to be wrong about the Earth?

Source: XKCD

Legend & other elements

Do you really need it?

  • Auxilliary elements: legend, North arrow, scale…
  • May improve legibility, but also clutter
  • Sometimes, it is required (e.g. scientific publications)

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Web Mapping & Analysis by Dani Arribas-Bel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.