Map Design

Introduction
Map design is concerned with the graphic presentation of the information contained in the map. The
aim is to communicate the map content effectively to the map user. To present this information
effectively, the following factors should be considered;
 The user requirements
 The user’s level of understanding
 The circumstances of use
 The complexity of the information to be presented
 The technical possibilities
 The costs to be incurred

Design operates in two levels

1) Detailed decisions about individual symbols which expresses the information graphically
2) The general appearance of the final map and the way content is presented

Map Design Process

The activities and procedures involved in arriving at design decisions in cartography are extremely
varied. However whatever the system, the design process can be thought of as consisting of the three
successive stages or operations

1) Imagination
At this stage, one scans the various possibilities and considers all the ways that the problem can
be approached and tries to visualize the different solutions. The result is a general idea of the
approach which involves making decisions such as the relation of the map to others, the format
(its size and shape), the basic layout, the selection of data to be incorporated and the graphic
organization of the data to be displayed

2) Development of specific Graphic Plan

Here the various alternatives are weighed within limits of general plan. At this stage, decisions are
made regarding particular kinds of symbolism, colour, use, topography, general line weights and
the like, in terms of how they will fit together graphically in the map.

3) Preparation of Specifications
This involves detailed specifications for the construction of the map. All symbols, line weight
tone, colours, lettering styles and sizes are specified, nothing is left unplanned. It is obvious that
preparing detailed specifications requires a thorough understanding of all the processes involved
in map construction.

Compilation & Production

The map design process begins with consideration of the purpose of the map and collection of
relevant data. Often secondary sources such as census data can be used, but data from air-photo
interpretation, analysis of satellite imagery, field surveys, or questionnaires may also provide the
basis for a map. However, data collection is only the first step.

The map design process includes:-

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 Making decisions about the selection of geographic features and attributes to be represented on
the map
 Selection of an appropriate map projection given the purpose of the map and the geographic
region of interest, choice of an appropriate scale taking into account the needs of the map user
 Generalization of features and attributes represented on the map
 Selection of appropriate symbolization, and design of the overall layout of the map.

The map design process is especially important because maps are a synoptic (summary) form of
communication. The map reader sees the entire graphic image at once.

Unlike verbal communication in which the speaker or writer can control the sequence in which
information is transmitted and received, the map maker has little control over how the map user will
view and interpret the map but nevertheless has a responsibility to ensure that the map is designed in
such a way as to ensure that the map user understands the map's intended message.

Good design that visually emphasizes the most important information is, only means that the
Cartographer has to accomplish the design formation.

Design decisions depends greatly on the type of map(s) to be produced. In the case of national or
provincial topographic maps or hydrographical charts, cartographic conventions are well established
and difficult to change. Design decisions are made by committees who have the responsibility to
ensure that any changes in feature representation or symbolization are consistent with required
accuracy standards and are acceptable to the user community.

Introducing revised symbolization becomes a tedious process, especially in the case of

hydrographical and aeronautical charts used for navigation. In these instances, modification of
cartographic conventions must take into account the safety and ultimately legal implications of any
proposed changes.

On the other hand, maps created by an individual researcher allow for mores creative approaches.

Principles (Goals) of Map Design

Several goals of map design can be identified. These include:
1. Clarity and Legibility
2. Order
3. Visual Balance
4. Visual Contrast
5. Visual Hierarchy.

A well-designed map should achieve all of these goals.

1) Clarity and Legibility

Clarity can be thought of in two ways:
 conceptual clarity
 Visual clarity

Conceptual clarity depends on the map maker having a clear understanding of the phenomena being
represented on the map(s). For example, a Cartographer charged with the task of producing a geo-

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morphological map of Kenya would need to understand of the formation of the landscape in order to
produce an effective geo-morphological map.

Only with a clear understanding the processes that formed the landscape would it be possible to
design a map that not only showed the spatial distribution of geomorphic features but also revealed
something of the underlying processes and spatial interrelationships.

Conceptual clarity requires a clear statement of objectives and understanding of the spatial patterns
and processes to be represented on the map(s). Conceptual clarity is translated into the graphic design
of the map through careful
 Selection of important information
 Elimination of unnecessary detail
 Inclusion of a legend that explains meanings of all features represented on the map.

Visual clarity refers to the translation of geographic features into graphic symbols on the map. A well
conceived map may still be poorly executed if the choice of symbols used is not carefully considered.
The spatial patterns represented on maps are often complex, requiring simplification of other aspects
of the map design in order to avoid confusion.

Visual clarity of the map can be improved by following some simple design rules:
 Avoid overlapping symbols and names. This may sound obvious but is often difficult to
achieve in practice. The longest names almost always have to fit in the smallest space.
 Use a small number of related symbols or patterns. Visual contrast between symbols is
desirable, but only within limits.
 Use different shades of the same colour, or at least limit the number of colours on the map.
Less is usually more.
 Use simple sans serif text styles. Limit the number of different fonts used to one or two. Vary
the size of text to reflect the importance of the information conveyed.
 Use symbols that are consistent with their connotative meanings. For example, we tend to
associate red with hot or danger and blue with cold or calm. A temperature map that reversed
the meanings of these colours would be confusing to many map readers.

A well designed map should be pleasing to look at. Its purpose should be clear to the map reader at a
glance, even if the map represents a complex spatial pattern that may require intensive study to fully
understand. Clarity and harmony can be achieved by using related symbols, colours and patterns and
by keeping the map as simple as is consistent with the information being presented. If the map
becomes too complex, consider representing the information as a series related maps representing
subsets of the information you are trying to present.

2) Order (Figure ground)

The immediate perception of fundamental structural elements of the map is of primary importance. In
the process of map reading, the reader should be able to tell the main feature from its surroundings.
In the context of map design, "order" has two meanings.
a) The sequence in which map readers view components of the map.
b) The sense of the orderliness of the map

a) The sequence in which map readers view components of the map.

Experiments using head cameras to follow the eye movements of map readers have shown that
map readers tend to read the map in the following order:
 Title

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  Overall pattern
 Map-legend
 Peripheral data
This suggests that the title is the most important information content of the map. The map reader
looks for the title first in order to determine the purpose of the map, and then inspects the spatial
pattern(s) represented by the map.

Eye movements back and forth between the map body and the legend are often necessary to
confirm correct interpretation of map symbols. Other information such as marginal notes, scale
and north arrow tend to be considered last.

b) The sense of the orderliness of the map

The second interpretation of "order" is in the sense of the orderliness of the map. Is the map
comfortable to look at? Is the information content of the map organized in a way that makes
interpretation of the map easier? In this sense, order is closely related to the notion of visual
clarity.

Order can be improved by:

 Using a small number of related colours, patterns or symbols.
 Using plain patterns or pastel colours to fill large areas.
 Using line patterns that are oriented in only one or two directions
 Avoiding line patterns that have the spacing between lines approximately equal to the line
width. These patterns tend to vibrate when viewed for any length of time.
 Organize the information presented on the map into a visual hierarchy in which the most
important information is visually most prominent.

3) Visual Balance
Balance refers to the overall layout of all map elements. While the subject area or body of the map is
the main focus of interest and should occupy as large a space on the page as possible, a map has
several other components that can be manipulated to achieve a balanced design.

These elements include the following

 Title
 Legend
 Scale
 North arrow or graticule to indicated orientation
 Inset maps
 Border.

The objective is to keep the map reader's attention focused on the map and not allow the eye to
wander off the page.

Balance is achieved by positioning the map elements relative to the visual centre of gravity of the
map which tends to be slightly above the actual centre of the map.

In positioning map elements on the page, it must be recognized that darker, stronger colours or
shading patterns and larger objects have greater visual weight. In attempting to balance these
components of the map, we want to keep the map body as large as possible while avoiding crowding
of the other map elements around the edges of the map.

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There are no hard and fast rules for achieving a balanced design. Usually, it is necessary to
experiment with alternative map layouts in the early stages of the design process until an acceptable
layout is obtained.

4) Visual Contrast
Visual contrast is needed to give the eye a focal point and to make the map more interesting. A map
that contains only lines of the same colour and weight is unlikely to attract the map reader's attention.
Variations in the weight of lines, the intensity of colours or shading patterns make the map more
interesting and make it easier for the map reader to correctly distinguish between different symbols.

Visual contrast can be based on any of the graphic variables:

 shape / form
 size
 colour
 value (intensity)
 pattern or texture
 direction / orientation
While visual contrast is necessary and can enhance the interpretability of the map, too much visual
contrast can detract from the clarity and order of the map.

5) Visual Hierarchy
Perhaps the most important design decision is to ensure that the relative importance of the different
pieces of information shown on the map is reflected in the choice of symbolization. Unnecessary
information should be eliminated entirely. Information that is relevant to the purpose of the map
should be symbolized in a way that makes more important information visually more prominent. This
requires careful consideration of the map purpose since maps with different purposes may display the
same geographic features but with different emphasis.

For example
 A town plan intended to be used as a source of data for other types of analysis might focus on the
geometric accuracy of the map. The map might show property parcel and building outlines very
precisely.
 A general reference map of the same town might attempt to show as much detail as possible and
include more text information to identify locations of points of interest.
 An advertising map showing the location of a store might emphasize the store itself and downplay
other map components.

The three maps would represent many of the same features, but the emphasis and symbolization
might be very different.

The visual hierarchy of a map can be enhanced by manipulating figure-ground relationships. The
human eye-brain system automatically separates visual images into background and foreground. In
the context of maps, the background is typically base map information which shows the spatial
context for the thematic content of the map.

Figure-ground relationships can be manipulated to distinguish land from water, or the thematic
content of the map from the base map. Distinguishing land from water can be accomplished by
shading either the land or water areas to make it easy for the map reader to distinguish between them.
Thematic information can be distinguished from base map information in similar ways by shading
symbols representing thematic data to make them stand out from the background.
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In general, Darker or stronger colours and shading patterns, closed forms and small areas tend to be
interpreted as figure. Differentiation of features by colours or shading, or articulation of features can
enhance figure ground relationships.

With thematic maps, we are usually interested in enhancing figure-ground relationships in order to
emphasize the relative importance of different components of the map. However, in the case of
general reference maps such as topographic maps, all information is of equal importance therefore
figure-ground relationship is not considered. For example, a topographic map contains many layers of
information including roads, buildings, built-up areas, vegetation, contours, and drainage. Different
map users may be interested in different map layers. If one map layer clearly stands out as figure, it
will be more difficult for users interested in other map layers to extract the information they required
since they will tend to be distracted by the layer that reads as figure. A better solution in this instance
is to use different colours for each layer, but choosing colours that have approximately equal visual
weight. This makes it easy for the map reader to focus on a particular layer and extract the
information of interest, given his or her purpose in using the map.

Design Considerations
Factors to be considered in map design include the following:-
 purpose of the map/topic
 intended audience
 format and scale of the map
 Production/reproduction methods that will be used.

Map Purpose
The purpose of the map determines the emphasis that should be given to different types of
information.

A general purpose topographic map represents a variety of physical and cultural features in a way that
each feature class is of relatively equal importance. Different feature classes are represented by
different coloured symbols to make interpretation easier by allowing the map reader to focus of the
map layers (colours) of interest.

Thematic maps have a more specific purpose and are designed to represent spatial distribution of a
specific theme. These maps mostly show quantities. Although thematic maps can be multi-variant,
they usually show the spatial distribution of a single variable, or several variables that deal with a
common theme e.g., temperature and relief. Information is deliberately selected that specifically
relates to the message that the map is trying to communicate.

The map topic includes consideration of the information content of the map and the geographic
region to be represented. These determine the selection of features and attributes to be represented,
the choice of an appropriate map projection and selection of an appropriate map scale

Reality
The overall geographical dimensions and character of distribution of features being mapped are
specified and should not be modified by the cartographer unless it is very necessary. These kinds of
reality place serious restrictions on the design possibilities. They must be anticipated at the start of the
planning stage of a map.

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Audience (Map User)
The intended audience is also an important consideration.
 What level of map reading skills is the intended audience likely to have?
- A map designed for a public school atlas is likely to be much simpler than a map in an
academic journal.
- A more experienced audience will be able to interpret more complex symbolization and
more complex spatial distributions.
 Perceptual abilities of the audience are also important.
- Many people suffer from some degree of colour blindness and may have difficulty
distinguishing colours, especially in the red portion of the spectrum.
 The conditions under which the map will be used can also affect the map reader's ability to
interpret the map.
- In particular, poor lighting conditions make it more difficult to read fine detail and may
require use of larger text fonts.
If there is uncertainty about the map reading skills of the intended audience, some testing may be
required to try out alternative map designs.

Scale
Map scale determines the degree of generalization required in order to maintain the legibility of
features represented on the map. Maps often must be designed to fit the page size and shape
requirements of the publications in which they are to appear. This acts as a constraint on map design
that can affect the layout of the map and may influence choice of map scale and amount of detail that
can be shown. The scale of the map to be designed has a greater control of the graphic elements to be
presented in the map. At larger scales, the design is more flexible compared to small scales.

Technical Limits
Construction and reproduction methods have some effects on design in several ways. The methods of
producing point symbols, line symbols and area symbols vary. If a complicated point symbol is
designed and several of them appear in the map, it is not possible to reproduce them exactly the same;
the option is to design a simpler symbol for the purpose of similarity or an appropriate method of
producing similar symbols be used.

Production and Reproduction Methods

A variety of map production and reproduction techniques can be used. Most maps are now produced
using computer assisted methods. Maps can be created using general purpose graphics packages such
as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDraw. Alternatively, maps can be generated from spatial databases using
geographic information systems.

If only a few copies are required, black and white, or colour printers/copiers can be used. This
provides a cost effective way of generating and distributing a small number of copies.

If large numbers of copies are required, the original artwork may be produced using computer
assisted methods, but the output will be colour separation images suitable for reproduction using
offset lithography.

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Format (Layout)
Finally the arrangements of information and explanatory items around the mapprd area are decided
upon. If done properly will give the well designed map an aesthetic appearance due to good balance
and attractive use of the space available on the map sheet.

Aspects of Legibility
Legibility can be defined as the ease with which a map can be read or its contents be understood by
the user. An important aspect of legibility is the ability to detect differences i.e. the ease with which
one is able to discriminate (differentiate) between symbols.

1. Visibility and Legibility

It has been previously stated that visual acuity is the ability of the eye to detect small objects i.e.
the smallest object size which can be detected at a given reading distance under certain conditions
of contrast. The minimum size of a graphical element which can be seen under normal
circumstances is about 0.1 mm for a point shaped symbol and 0.06 mm for a linear shaped
symbol. This is possible when the symbols are isolated on a white paper. In practice, it is much
better to use slightly larger threshold since elements don’t usually appear in isolation on a highly
contrasting background. The following minimum dimensions are usually applied in cartographic
symbol design.

0.2 mm diameter for a point symbol

0.1 mm thickness for line symbols
0.2 mm as a minimal perceptible distance between two parallel lines
0.4 mm solid square, 0.6 mm for open square.

2. Contrast and Legibility

The natural reaction to legibility of a map belongs to subjective associations (personal opinion or
imaginations). Complex forms seem to attract the eye and excite the interests. Continuous lines
usually give the impression of continuity in features while broken lines are related to uncertainty
of the represented features.
Continuous line
Broken line

Variation in orientation of symbols may create a vague impression of movement and stability,
depending on the direction of orientated symbols. Horizontally oriented symbol looks more
stable than a symbol oriented at an angle.

More Stable Less Stable

Colour has a subjective association to a number of features and therefore may create various
feelings and sensations e.g. the representation of temperatures, where red and yellow-relate to
warm temperature while blue relate to cold temperatures. Red colours also relates to danger
zones and green for safe areas. Red colour excites most and should be used for striking features.

Increasing darkness in value creates the impression of importance or of a higher value and
increased density contrast also attracts the interest.

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 Size variations creates contrast is relative magnitudes e.g. a thin line is of lesser importance
compared to a thick line and a small symbol looks less important than a large symbol.
Less important
More important

3. Amount of Detail and Legibility

When too much detail is included in a map, it tends to create too much noise and therefore
becomes less legible. Crowded information is not pleasing to the eye and ends up creating more
confusion to the map user, other than communicating the information correctly. For information
to remain legible, generalization is effected with reference to the purpose and scale of the map

Legibility and Visual variations

Once the graphic characteristics of a symbol has been perceived then identification is possible.
Identification also requires that the meaning of the symbol is understood. An in-experienced map
user may correctly perceive that the brown line on the map is defined in the legend as a contour line,
but if he does not understand the meaning of the term contour as used in mapping, he may not be able
to interprete the relief of the represented area. Minimum conditions for differentiation among
symbols apply to the visual variables. Identification is made easier to the map user if the graphic
variables are used systematically, so that similar items have a common graphic element in
representation.

It is very easy to differentiate between a square and a circle in forms provided their sizes are
sufficiently large. When both the circle and the square is reduced in size, differentiation may become
difficult.

Easy to differentiate Difficult to differentiate

Ability to differentiate also depends on the distance between symbols. The further the symbols from
each other, the more difficult it becomes to differentiate them especially when they have almost
similar shapes

Easy to distinguish between Difficult to distinguish

similar symbols between similar symbols

Simple shapes in form are more legible compared to complicated shapes.

Small differences in orientation cannot clearly be seen. For clarity purposes, orientation of triangles
are limited to only two directions and for rectangles, four directions can clearly be distinguished.

Not easy to distinguish Orientation differences

the different orientations can easily be seen

In the case of value, it is possible to distinguish between 7 and 8 graded values. When more steps are
used, the eye may be unable to discriminate between them. Variations which are clearly visible in the
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legend may not be visible when applied in the actual map, since distance between the various grey
values has increased.
Add graded value

Variation in size variable also depends on the size of the symbols used. When the size variations are
too small, differentiation is not quite possible as compared to larger variations in size.

Poor choice Better choice

In colour variations, dark coloured symbols are better legible on a light background than the reverse
e.g. a white symbol on a black background is considered less good, but white text on a dark
background has a good legibility and therefore creates good contrast.

A A ♣ ♣

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