There's light at the end of the tunnel. :-)
(Images have been deleted in the post. But you have to see it to be
convinced)
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/396-helpful-distortion-at-nyc-london-subway-maps
Eddie Jabbour, graphic designer for Kick Design, is obsessed with
replacing the confusing NYC subway map
<http://www.gothamist.com/2007/04/23/kick_map_finds.php> (below:
originals on left and Kick maps on right — click for larger versions).
*The logic behind the changes*
“Can He Get There From Here?”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/nyregion/thecity/22map.html?ex=1334894400&en=9dca907b8de19651&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink>
profiles Jabbour’s quest. Here he explains the reasoning for his changes:
Mr. Jabbour pinned two maps to the wall, then pointed to the
different renderings of the Atlantic Avenue terminal in Brooklyn,
which he says is the most difficult station to represent because so
many subway lines converge there. In Mr. Jabbour’s map, the subway
lines run parallel to one another, making the map easier to read, if
slightly inaccurate. Each line is marked with a circle bearing the
route’s letter or number, instead of the oblong station markers used
on the current map.
There are other differences. Unlike the official map, Mr. Jabbour’s
map does not have a single line representing all the trains in a
“cluster” route, like the 1, 2 and 3 trains in Manhattan. He used
the same type font throughout, and words travel left to right,
rather than diagonally, as on much of the official map. The lines
bend only in 45- and 90-degree angles, to create a gridlike pattern.
In the eyes of Mr. Jabbour, the New York system is too complicated
to layer on information like commuter rail and bus routes, as the
current map does. He would like to see a map that is singularly
devoted to the subway.
*Distortion vs. accuracy*
Jabbour’s map looks like a winner. (Thankfully, the navigation on it is
a lot better than the messy Flash interface at Kick Design
<http://www.kickdesign.com/>’s main site). He wisely recognizes that
usability is more important than geographic accuracy here. Subway map
readers want to know how to get from A to B a lot more than they want to
know the exact curve of the tracks along the way. Sometimes truth is
less important than knowledge.
It’s also interesting to see how he increases the number of lines on the
map yet decreases the overall noise created. That change means riders
can put their finger on a line and trace it all the way to their
destination. That’s not always an easy task on the current map (multiple
trains run along a single line until veering off).
*When abstractions work*
In Maps, Reality, and Purpose
<http://people.clarkson.edu/%7Ejohndan/workspace/2007/04/maps_reality_and_purpose.html>,
Johndan Johnson-Eilola explains why abstractions, deletions, and
additions are part of how a map works.
At first glance, a map that doesn’t directly correspond to the
object it’s mapping seems like a bad thing. But that’s what maps
are: useful abstractions. They’re smaller than reality, less
detailed, are usually two-dimensional. That shouldn’t been seen as a
limitation, but added information. The abstractions suggest to us
what features we would benefit from paying attention to.
*London tube map*
This is a lesson you can see in action at the London tube map
<http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/images/general/mapt-tube-standard-colourmap.gif>,
widely acknowledged as a design classic. It bears very little
geographical relationship to where the stations are
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A673517> and even less geographical
information on how far apart stations are. Here’s an interesting
comparison of a real geographical tube map
<http://solo2.abac.com/themole/geog.gif> (top) and the adjusted version
seen on the official map (below).
<http://solo2.abac.com/themole/geog.gif>
<http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/images/general/mapt-tube-standard-colourmap.gif>
*Tufte on London map*
Edward Tufte is a fan of the London map
<http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00005W&topic_id=1>.
Harry Beck’s diagram of the 7+ lines of the London Underground,
although geographically inaccurate, provides a coherent overview of
a complex system. With excellent color printing, classic British
railroad typography (by Edward Johnson), and, in the modern style,
only horizontal, vertical, and 45 degree lines, the map became a
beautiful organizing image of London. For apparently quite a number
of people, the map organized London (rather than London organizing
the map). Despite 70 years of revision due to extensions of the
Underground and bureaucratic tinkering (the marketing department
wrecked the map for several years), the map nicely survives to this day.
Tufte also recommends a book on the London map: Mr Beck’s Underground
Map
<http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Becks-Underground-Map-Garland/dp/1854141686/ref=sr_1_1/102-7863188-2948111?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1177599413&sr=8-1>.
The book describes the enormous care, craft, thought, and hard work
of Harry Beck that went on for decades — exactly what it takes to do
great information design and so in contrast to the quick-and-dirty
practices and thinking of commercial art.
Of course, there are problems with inaccurate maps, as Simon Rumble
points out at the Tufte site.
The main problem with the Tube map is that it is geographically
inaccurate. This can lead to a very distorted view of London,
particularly for those new to the city.
Many stations are geographically very close and you can end up
spending half an hour in stuffy tunnels when you could have worked
overground for five minutes. The same occurs in reverse. It is also
deficient in the way it describes some stations. For example, the
interchange between the Hammersmith and City line and other lines at
Paddington. It’s a reasonably long walk but they are still in the
same physical station.
Of course nobody has come up with anything better and it is still a
fantastic map. After a year or so of living in London, I can work
out my route in seconds.
Utopia isn’t an option here. The distorted map gets the job done better
than an accurate one and that’s what really matters.
*Related imagery*
London Tube Map
<http://www.nyclondon.com/blog/archives/2004/08/07/london_tube_map.blog>
is a blog post with some interesting related imagery, including a
geographically accurate map overlaid onto a NASA satellite image of
London <http://www.nyclondon.com/blog/images/tube_geo.jpg> (1 MB) and
the tube map overlaid onto a NASA night time London image (below).