Setting your problem
Know your audience
Maps are for people, but people have different needs and different abilities.
Carry out a user assessment for your map very early in the process of making your map. Ask yourself:
- Who is your intended audience?
- Why would a map interest them?
- What knowledge will they bring to reading your map?
- What might constrain their ability to read your map?
Done not due
How will you know when you are done making your map?
Make a list of the questions that your map needs to answer or the decisions that your map needs to help someone make. Rank the list by importance and distinguish must from might. Think through the spatial relationships that you will need to help your reader learn.
Return to this pattern as you work on your map. Does everything on your map help someone answer one of the spatial questions that you have identified in some way? Is there anything on the map that doesn’t serve the map’s purpose? If there is, what are your reasons for not removing it?
What is the point?
If the audience does not quickly and easily understand what the map is about and why they should care about it, then they may become distracted and lose interest, or just pass it by.
Early in your workflow, write a list of key terms on a sticky note or index card and place this note near your monitor so that it is in the corner of your eye as you work on your map. Start with a list of key terms. Order the terms based on their importance: most important things first. Think about prepositional phrasings that suggest important spatial relationships between terms. Revisit and revise the words as you work on your map; aim to succinctly state the map’s thesis or purpose. Explore phrasings that make the point and generate intrigue.
Object in the world
A map will always exist as an object in the real world. The form of a map should help people use the object in both a physical environment and pattern of activity.
Identify what people will be doing and where they will be doing these things while they are using your map. Design your map to facilitate these actions in these environments. If you’re making a poster for a conference, consider that the room may be poorly lit, your audience will be standing up and, more than likely, they’ve finished their free drink that enticed them to come to your poster session in the first place. If you’re making a walking guide, consider that your audience will be outside, it may be day or night, it may be raining or the sun may be blazing, and your audience will be referring to your map while moving.