what makes a good map?

What Makes a Good Map?Adam Nemeth, Nearby Project

Air pollution + Stereo Computer Vision

Community Databases + AGPS + Base Stations

PostGIS + Badly written SQL Selects + names

What I won't talk about tonight

What I will talk about instead

Astrid Fasold, Lead of Map Design

“Cartography is a special kind of UX”

at

• For specific target audiences

• To solve specific use cases

• In specific contexts

Maps are there

It tries to solve everything for everyone

That’s why a single, global map is hard to design

• What kind of vehicle? (ped., car, bike...)

• Is it you who's driving?

• What's the speed?

• How old are you?

• Are you familiar with the area?

Target audiences

• Also they expect maps to be permanent

• Mobile screen is small

• Can't be overloaded with information, but needs enough - no legend!

• Visual Information Hierarchy in each and every view!

• Level of detail is important

People expect things to see at once!

• Not all goals are told explicitly

• Orientation is a key issue

• But perhaps you need an ATM on the way...

Primary and secondary goals

• Orientation can be anything: width of street, shape or color of building, a tree, a crane, brand signs...

• Churches are usually high buildings with a tower or a cross on top of them in Europe - not always!

• India doesn't have street names - they use petrol station names

• Chinese would prefer a McDonalds to a street name

Orientation

• University students expect their building names to be present - not meaningful for anyone else

• There's no reason to show pathways while driving

• A “main street” is different for a pedestrian and a driver

• “entrance” is different for a pedestrian and a driver, not to mention parking spots

• A metro station can have up to 10-15 exits

Use Case Examples

Digital cartography is even more complex

Cartography is complex

You can only implement it well while actively trying to use it

Google Maps (mostly pedestrian)

OpenStreetMap.org (“could you pls add...?”)

Any questions?

Nokia Maps (mostly driving)