How to make maps easy to read covers some fascinating ground. The research Richard Phillips did on cartographic communications is thorough and well done. Split into six sections, it covers Relief, Typography, Eye Movement, Symbols with an Overview and Notes.
Full PDF papers of the various sections are available, and recommended in some sections. I did find that charts in the typography section were tough to understand without reading the full paper. (the charts didn't mean that much to me.) But some of the finding were interesting. I really liked the eye movement and the typography sections.
For maps, type should be set in a typeface of normal weight in lower case with an initial capital. However, capitals are recommened when the place is difficult to pronounce or needs to be copied.
It's a real interesting read that covers a very difficult subject matter. Maps convey a huge amount of information in a dense area, with many layers of information. Trying to best design a way to convey that information is not easy, and studies like this one help to understand various techniques that can be used to help create better designs.
Tagged As Info Design
Comments are Open (0)
Posted at 08:24 AM