A1-DouglasMason
From CS294-10 Visualization Fa08
Better Example: Compare and Contrast Berkeley Maps
Description
Here I present two maps containing different information about the same locality, Berkeley, CA. The maps on the left provide information about which roads contain bike lanes, bicycle boulevards (low-traffic roads with automobile barriers that bicycles can pass), or multi-use paths. The maps on the right instead provide information about secretive walking paths between the streets. Both do an excellent job of conveying geographical information embedded in a larger road map. Since both pedestrians and bicyclists can use the non-designated roads, these maps provide many levels of pertinent information on one sheet of paper without too much compromise.
Both maps include:
- Geographical data along with a general-purpose road map
- A list of road-names in alphabetic order, listed with a letter-number grid combination printed on the map
- Color-highlight roads to indicate which ones are of interest to the user.
- Names of locations interestuld benefit from using much stronger contrasts and thicker-stroke indicators as in the former.
- The bicycle map also includes a larger amount of unsolicited but useful information, such as street grades and public transportation stations
The importance of color contrast
The walking path map uses places dark blue against brown lines, a visually-compelling and instantly recognizable formal. The bicycle map instead uses a variety of indicators which fall within or without the road lines: solid red for bicycle lane, dotted red for bicycle routes (where bicycles share the road), an orange aura for bicycle boulevards, and dotted green for multi-use pathways. However, there is no internal logic to these indicators, and the legend is small and hard to find. The routes of interests do not "jump" out at you, and involve a fair amount of sleuthing to remember exactly what they are. The bicycle boulevard indicator is especially confusing since the yellow-orange aura is often used in maps to indicate bicycle-unfriendly freeways.
A note about blank space
In both maps, a large portion of the real estate, about 20%, is devoted to large spans of land without any routes of interest, and one can't help but wonder if the compromise of area covered/readability would benefit from a rearrangement of the legend onto to the blank regions. The walking path uses this space to include a list of roads, while the bike route map includes a context map.
Worse Example: Outside Lands Music Festival
Context
For the Outside Lands music festival August 22-24, 2008, at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, attendees were handed curious small pocket booklets at the entrance. The booklets contained biographies of the artists, interviews, and most importantly information to aid perusing 6 stages of live mind-blowing music spread out over many acres of the park, all with various time schedules. Thus the focus of the booklet was the daily schedule and the concert map, which worked in tandem to provide all the time and location information the audience would need for three days. In practice, many concert-goers ended up drawing paths, that is, arrows from each music event to the next, eeking out a subset of events to plot out their course through the festival. This activity was popular for attendees who sought to see just a few artists they knew of previously.
The Fold-out Map
The booklet map contained a second fold-out map between its pages. This is emphasized in the upper right-hand corner in the booklet stating "For detailed site information see the insertion map". However, the insertion map was simply an enlargement of the booklet version and contained no new information save for the legend apparent in the online version. Practically speaking, the fold-out map made both maps easy to find, but made examining the booklet map difficult since one had to flip it back and forth to see it. Concert-goers found the fold-out map cumbersome and usually tore it out and threw it away. Adding insult to injury, the insertion map was difficult to rip out cleanly, leaving a half-torn sheet that obstructed the booklet map. Ultimately, the fold-out map served only to annoy.
Problems with the Map
The included map does a good job of giving a geographic representation of the stage campus. It identifies the six main stages with enlarged outlined fonts: Lands End, The Avenue, Sutro, Presidio, Panhandle, and Twin Peaks. This instantly puts the information into a hierarchy. However, the less important information, such as the text "signature lounge provided by VISA Signature" is too small to read. The ratio in the height between the most important text to least important text is over 3, which is just too large for this amount of information. The inclusion of small proprietary symbols, such as small blue boxes representing portable toilets instead of the commonly recognized man/woman symbol for restrooms, muddies the map further. The red outline representing the bounds of the festival, which is effective at communicating that message implicitly, is also difficult to understand, since it is not simply connected and is obscured by graphic art with no information content, such as the trees. The use of accessibility (handicap) phone, and medical symbols are instantly recognizable.
Problems with the Dual Format
Putting the map and the schedule on different pages separated by about 10 pages made using both difficult since it was necessary to constantly flip between the two. This is largely due to the fact that the columns of the schedule are not well-arranged. Since the implicit function of the schedule is to aid users to choose an appropriate path between musical events, it is important that the columns be arranged geographically, so that nearest neighbors in the schedule are also nearest neighbors on the campus. While the columns are arranged in pairs according to the three "fields" or "meadows", the Lindley Meadow, for instance, which is connected to the Polo Field geographically, is separated in the schedule by the Speadway Meadow, to which it has no direct route.
Revision of the Outside Lands Map and Schedule
Description
I have combined the map and the schedule into one image. I have abstracted the map so that the extraneous and distracting details have been wiped out. Now it provides a rough geographical sketch and information for the stage locations only. The columns of the schedule have been rearranged to reflect the map in a linear fashion. Moreover, the columns now line up with the abstract locations of the stages, making it extremely easy to determine which stage is most easily accessed from the other. One would imagine that a reworked and more visually informative map would be included elsewhere in the booklet. However the key information that is coordinated with the schedule is reproduced here. Another alternative would be to include the abstract map as a thumbnail the lower right-hand corner if space is an issue.
